• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Short-term climate modeling forecasts drought for Southeast US

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 25, 2021
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Photo courtesy Mundoo

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. –Many climate models focus on scenarios decades into the future, making their outcomes seem unreliable and problematic for decision-making in the immediate future. In a proactive move, researchers are using short-term forecasts to stress the urgency of drought risk in the United States and inform policymakers’ actions now.

A new study led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai examines how drought propagates through climate, hydrological, ecological and social systems throughout different U.S. regions. The results are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“The same amount of precipitation, or the lack of thereof, in one region could have very different impacts on the hydrologic cycle, streamflow and water storage in another region,” Cai said. “The impacts of droughts are closely related to climate and environmental characteristics, and both together can have very different impacts on human water usage and supply.”

For example, the team predicted that lack of rainfall in the Southeastern region poses a greater risk than it does in the Southwest. The Southwest has a relatively large water-storage capacity, unlike the Southeast, which has a limited storage capacity and faces increased demand. Their prediction proved accurate, according to their models.

Cai and co-author Tushar Apurv compiled previously collected meteorologic, soil and hydrologic data from 30 regions around the U.S. from the past few decades. Using this data, they calculated a ratio representing how severe the hydrologic droughts are relative to meteorological droughts in these regions. This ratio helped them determine where water availability and water supply deficits have been occurring over time.

The study reports that precipitation deficits have decreased in Northern parts of the U.S. and increased in the Southwestern and Southeastern regions due to climate change, the researchers said. As a result, the Southwest has experienced severe drought effects on ecosystems in the area in recent years, which is likely to continue into the next decade – with severe drought conditions already in place since August.

However, according to the study, the forecasted Southeastern drought could lead to a very different outcome than the Southwestern drought.

“If this trend of increasing drought severity persists, as also predicted by other studies, the Southeast could be at very high risk for extreme drought, which might not have been realized in the past,” Cai said. “This will expose their water-supply infrastructure to stress beyond its design limit.”

In other words, there is a risk that the Southeast may not be as well prepared to handle near-future drought as the Southwest, which appears to have the situation better controlled, Cai said.

The researchers plan to explore more detailed studies on some of the watersheds to help uncover solutions, but they are more eager to flag the attention of policymakers right now.

“We think this study provides the scientific support needed to punctuate the immediate threat posed by drought,” Cai said. “We see our results as an incentive for decision-makers to bring drought mitigation to the forefront of environmental and water-management policy.”

###

Cai also is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment – which supported this study – and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

Editor’s notes:

To reach Ximing Cai, call 217-333-4935; email [email protected].
The paper “Regional drought risk in the contiguous United States” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau. DOI: 10.1029/2020GL092200

Media Contact
Lois Yoksoulian
[email protected]

Original Source

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/894406238

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020GL092200

Tags: AgricultureCivil EngineeringClimate ChangeClimate ScienceEcology/EnvironmentNatureTechnology/Engineering/Computer Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

August 3, 2025
blank

Optical Matrix Multipliers Revolutionize Image Encoding and Decoding

August 3, 2025

Voltage Imaging Uncovers Hippocampal Memory Inhibition Dynamics

August 3, 2025

Predicting Glioma Response to Chemoradiation

August 3, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    49 shares
    Share 20 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

Optical Matrix Multipliers Revolutionize Image Encoding and Decoding

Voltage Imaging Uncovers Hippocampal Memory Inhibition Dynamics

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.