9634337 McNider It is the purpose of this project to develop tools and linkages between climate models and the hydrology of the Tennessee River. Specifically, we will examine the relationships and techniques for assessing the thermal quality of the waters of the reservoirs and stream sections of the Tennessee River System. Previous studies have shown that the thermal quality of water is critical to maintenance of the ecology of the river system and is a regulatory constraint for industries along the river. This also a river attribute which may be sensitive to changes in hydrological characteristics such as precipitation evapotranspiration as well as changes in temperature. Thus, it is of concern in climate change scenarios. In order to build and test thermal quality assessment models we will emphasize modeling the 1988-1989 period which represents the biggest hydrological contrast in the present climate record for this region. The project will utilize mesoscale atmospheric models to develop higher resolution inputs to the hydrologic models, physically based hydrologic models to characterize streamflows and a reservoir analysis model to translate physical information into economic and environmental quality measures. The objective of the study is to determine whether a global scale model can capture the important interannual signals affecting regional hydrology and whether this information can be propagated with fidelity through a mesoscale model through a hydrology model to a thermal quality model to replicate actual impacts.
