Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2011

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract

Water supplies for municipalities either use groundwater or surface water as the main source for raw water. The availability of these resources varies depending on climate conditions. Development of climatic scenarios is essential in water resource management plans to accurately predict the future supplies. In order to determine a climatic scenario, statistical analysis of existing climate data needs to be performed and sufficient historical climatic data needs to be collected to perform statistical analysis. The primary objective of this thesis is to develop a climatic scenario for five stations in Eastern South Dakota namely: Brookings, Huron, Watertown, Sisseton, and Aberdeen. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted studies that identified five climatic scenarios each consisting of 8 years of hydrologic data for Northeastern South Dakota. Based upon this study, five climatic scenarios were developed using evaporation and precipitation data for the five stations from more than 50 water years. The scenarios were developed for Wet, Moderately Wet, Average, Moderately Dry, and Dry 8-year periods. The scenarios obtained from evaporation and precipitation data were compared to Brookings, SD. In addition, comparison of climate scenarios for Brookings, SD with scenarios for other four stations was performed. Developed scenarios were also compared with the scenario developed by the USGS study. The evaporation records for Brookings showed 1989-1996 as a Wet period while 1964-1971 was the Dry period. Similarly, the Average period was 1954-1961. The precipitation results suggested that the period 1952-1959 was Dry period, while 1989-1996 as the Wet period and 1998-2005 as an Average period. The precipitation result showed that Sisseton and Brookings were the wettest stations and Aberdeen appeared to be the driest station among the five. The precipitation increased from western stations (Huron and Aberdeen) to the eastern stations (Watertown, Brookings, and Sisseton). Further, the climate record showed a multi-year characteristic and the comparison of the developed scenarios for five stations showed the driest and wettest periods for the stations were around 1950-1960 and 1990-2000, while the Average period was around 1960 to 1970. The comparison of the developed scenarios with those found by USGS showed that the climate scenarios developed were similar to those developed for Lake Level Frequency Analysis for Waubay Lake Chain, Northeastern South Dakota.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

South Dakota -- Climate

Evaporation (Meteorology) -- South Dakota

Precipitation (Meteorology) -- South Dakota

Hydrologic cycle -- South Dakota

Water-supply -- South Dakota

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

151

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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