Featured Collection Introduction: Severe Sustained Drought Revisited: Managing the Colorado River System in Times of Water Shortage 25 Years Later — Part I

Featured Collection introduction: Severe sustained drought revisited managing the Colorado River system in times of water shortage 25 years later—Part II

“…This second set of articles highlights the work done by Salehabadi et al (2022) on three historically based drought scenarios, McCoy et al (2022) on explaining seven climate‐related extreme events of greatest interest to water managers, Colby and Hansen (2022) on urban water demand management and policies for improving water supply reliability, Garcia‐Hernandez et al (2022) on water quality in the Colorado River Delta, and Ayres et al (2022) on economic losses from reducing inflows into the Salton Sea. These papers, alongside the first set of articles (see overview in Frisvold et al, 2022), continue to illustrate the range of challenges and the expertise applied to them in thoughtful, innovative, and multi‐disciplinary ways. Herein, we provide a short overview of each article.…”

Agricultural Water Footprints and Productivity in the Colorado River Basin

“…In the 250,000-square-mile (647,497 km 2 ) Colorado River Basin, U.S. states, Mexico, and tribes have been assigned the right to use a volume of water that exceeds the volume of water that exists in the system. The Colorado River Compact of 1922 and the 1944 Water Treaty with Mexico allocated 7.5 million acre feet (maf) (9.25 km 3 ) to Upper Basin States (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming), 7.5 maf (9.25 km 3 ) to Lower Basin States (Arizona, California, and Nevada), and 1.5 maf (1.85 km 3 ) to Mexico, giving a total of 16.5 maf (20.35 km 3 ) [2,3]. The 1922 Colorado River Compact [2] was negotiated during a time when river flows were high compared with reconstructed records [4,5].…”

“…In May 2023, the Lower Basin States (Arizona, California, and Nevada) submitted a plan to the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) to conserve a total of 1.5 maf (1.85 km 3 ) of Colorado River water by the end of 2024, with a cumulative total of 3 maf (3.70 km 3 ) by the end of 2026 [17]. While 2.3 maf (2.84km 3 ) of conservation was to be voluntary, with compensation coming from IRA funds, the remaining 0.7 maf (0.86 km 3 ) would either be uncompensated or compensated by state or local entities.…”