A case study on evaluating impacts of potential climate change on groundwater resources: Groundwater recharge in the Upper Colorado River Basin

An investigation of the change in groundwater recharge in response to potential climate change
was performed for the UCRB using the SWB groundwater recharge model and downscaled
climate data from the CMIP5 multi-model dataset. Climate projections from 97 downscaled
CMIP5 datasets were assumed to be equally likely and recharge simulation results were
combined. Results for the UCRB suggest that projected increases in actual ET from higher
temperatures may be offset by increases in precipitation, resulting in increased groundwater
recharge for many areas in the basin in future time periods.