Groundwater response to climate variability and land cover change is important for sustainable management of water resources in the Southwest US. Global Climate Models (GCM) project that the region will dry in the 21st century and the transition to a more arid climate may be under way. In semiarid Basin and Range systems, this impact is likely to be most pronounced in Mountain System Recharge (MSR), a process which constitutes a significant component of recharge in these basins. Despite the importance of MSR the physical processes that control MSR, and hence the climate change impacts, have not been fully investigated because of the complexity of recharge processes in mountainous catchments and limited observations. In this study, methodologies were developed to provide process-based understanding of MSR based on empirical and data-driven approaches. For the empirical approach, a hydrologically-based seasonal ratio the Normalized Seasonal Wetness Index (NSWI) was developed. It incorporates seasonal precipitation variability and temperature regimes to seasonal MSR estimation using existing empirical equations. Stable isotopic data was used to verify recharge partitioning. Using the NSWI and statistically downscaled monthly GCM precipitation and temperature data, climate change impacts on seasonal MSR are evaluated. Second, a novel data-based approach was developed to quantify mountain block recharge based on the catchment storage-discharge (S-Q) relationships and informed by isotopic data. Development of S-Q relationships across the Sabino Creek catchment, Arizona, allowed understanding of MBR dynamics across scale.Two ArcGIS desktop applications were developed for ArcGIS 9.2 to enhance recharge and evapotranspiration (ET) estimation: Arc-Recharge and RIPGIS-NET. Arc-Recharge was developed to quantify and distribute recharge along MODFLOW cells using spatially explicit precipitation data and a digital elevation model. RIPGIS-NET was developed to provide parameters for the RIP-ET package and to visualize MODFLOW results. RIP-ET is an improved MODFLOW ET module for simulating ET. RIPGIS-NET improves alluvial recharge estimation by providing spatially explicit riparian ET estimates. Using such tools and the above methods improves recharge and ET estimation in groundwater models by incorporating temporally and spatially explicit data and hence the assessment of climate variability and land cover change on groundwater resources can be improved.

A rapid development of wind energy has been approved globally within the last few years due to the common recognition of this renewable energy technology. It is seen as one of the most promising substitutions to fossil fuels which have been exploited for over one century but were proved to be a crucial factor of human-induced climate change. However, even though wind energy has been regarded to be clean, resource saving and environmentally friendly, it still poses special problems and concerns to the surrounding social-ecological system. Thereby it requires careful selection of sites of installation. This paper provides an overview of wind energy and its development in the recent decade and focus on elaborating different issues involved in wind energy development. This is done through a case study of applying GIS tools in selecting suitable locations for onshore wind power plants in Västmanland County of Sweden.