The Future Hydrology of the Colorado River Basin

This paper summarizes the current understanding of future hydrology from the perspective of how that understanding can be incorporated into the Colorado River Simulation System and other river planning models. We also provide scenarios that characterize and estimate plausible future drought conditions, based on the record of past droughts in historic and tree ring-estimated natural flow. Scenarios described in this report, although sometimes of low probability, are based on flows that have occurred in the past or can be reconstructed from the past record of streamflow. If such conditions have happened in the past, they might occur in the future, and these scenarios should be considered in future planning.