Iris Stewart-Frey published article on the effect of California’s drought on water supplies
Iris Stewart-Frey and two alumna published article
Iris Stewart-Frey together with Jackie Rogers '20 (Environmental Science) and Anne Graham '19 (Environmental Science) published a paper on "Disparate impacts of the recent severe drought on environmental flows and water supplies in Central California" in the Journal of Hydrology Open Access. In the study, they use conditions during the record-breaking 2014–2016 California drought in the Tuolumne Watershed as a surrogate for the more frequent and extreme climatic events projected under climate change. The Tuolumne watershed not only supplies water to large portions of the San Francisco Bay Area, it also serves as important habitat for Chinook salmon. Results indicated that under more severe forms of drought, different sections of the Tuolumne watershed were affected in profoundly different ways with respect to water supplies and stream temperatures. The authors outline integrative drought-preparation strategies that prioritize water security through an equitable and sustainable distribution of the available water resources, while minimizing the impact on human water supplies and ecosystems in water-limited regions.
Jackie Rogers is a Hackworth and Clare Boothe Luce fellowship recipient and will enter the Energy, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. program at Washington University in fall, working on issues related to water quality and agriculture.
Anne Graham is currently an AmeriCorps volunteer.