(Missoula) University of Montana graduate David Ketchum has unveiled a 35-year analysis quantifying the interconnected impacts of climate change and irrigation on surface water flows.
The study was recently published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment and describes the relative impact that climate change and irrigation intensification is having on hundreds of watersheds in the Western United States.
The study found that flows have been altered beyond observed climate-related changes and that many of these changes are attributable to irrigation, and that the irrigation itself did happen in that area, which runs contrary to government-reported irrigation stats.
