There remains significant uncertainty about the exact scope and timing of climate change-related impacts on water resources, but the National Water Program and its partners need to assess emerging climate change information, evaluate potential impacts of climate change on water programs, and identify needed responses. This report is an initial effort to evaluate how best to meet our clean water and safe drinking water goals in the context of a changing climate. The ideas and response actions outlined here are the product of a cooperative effort among the EPA water program managers in national and Regional offices. A wide range of stakeholders participated in initial ¿listening session¿ meetings. Illustrations.

Professionals are sure to understand the effects of climate change on urban water and wastewater utilities with this collection of international scientific papers. Case studies and practical planning, mitigating, and adapting information are provided on greenhouse gases, energy use, and water supply and quality issues.

Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.

Environmental law envisions ecological systems as existing in an equilibrium state, reinforcing a rigid legal framework unable to absorb rapid environmental changes and innovations in sustainability. For the past four decades, "resilience theory," which embraces uncertainty and nonlinear dynamics in complex adaptive systems, has provided a robust, invaluable foundation for sound environmental management. Reforming American law to incorporate this knowledge is the key to sustainability. This volume features top legal and resilience scholars speaking on resilience theory and its legal applications to climate change, biodiversity, national parks, and water law.

This newly updated Water Sustainability volume of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (ESST) takes a holistic view of full water cycle and integrates the water themes into sustainability science and technology. With the increasing pressures of population growth, water scarcity, flooding, water pollution, climate impacts and competition of water uses among municipal, agricultural, industrial sectors and ecosystem, there is a growing trend in promoting Integrated Water Management and “One Water” concept worldwide. This reference volume covers multi-disciplinary sustainability topics from the perspective of integrated water management, which includes drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, reclaimed water and groundwater. It also spans cross-cutting themes of the water-energy-food nexus, showing how all of these sectors are inextricably linked. Water Sustainability is a comprehensive resource for a broad audience of scientists and engineers, researchers and practitioners, and decision makers whose objective is to advance sustainable water management.