Projects & Programs
Climate Change Application
The Geographic Information System-based Modeling System for Watershed Analysis PNNL Regional Climate Model (RCM) system was applied to the 204-km2 American River watershed located on the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington State. Runoff is snowmelt-dominated, generally with a minor peak in the late fall and a major peak during spring snowmelt. Two PNNL-RCM climate simulations were used to study the impacts of climate change on mountain water resources. They include a 7-year-long control simulation of the present climate and an 8-year-long simulation of a double carbon dioxide climate.