Agricultural Water Resource Planning

Problem

Agricultural investments are becoming increasingly risky in a changing climate – particularly for water-intensive crops and rain-fed agricultural systems. Faced with increasing risks, a confidential client has approached Lynker multiple times to evaluate the viability of various agricultural and water investments in the Pacific Northwest, the eastern United States, and Europe. Each of these potential investments faced unique risks, ranging from projecting future supply and demands on a reservoir system to evaluating the long-range viability of groundwater resources for farmland and water resource evaluations.

The Great Lake resulting from the Alqueva Reservoi

Solution

Lynker worked with our clients to develop tailored solutions to evaluate the water-related risks for each of the potential investments. For the reservoir supply and demand evaluation, we used our proprietary water resource optimization model, CRAM, to project future water supply and demand in Europe under a warmer, drier climate as indicated by climate model outputs. For the rain-fed agricultural systems in the Northwest, we evaluated climate model-projected changes in temperature and precipitation that could affect both supply for water and demand of water from irrigated crops.

Actionable Intelligence

The products we delivered to our clients in each of these cases were tailored to their specific needs. However, in each example, we provided our clients with periodic calls to understand their concerns and a concise summary report so that they could understand and monitor their risk.

Relevant Capabilities

Climate Change and Population Growth

With decades of deep experience in natural hazards analyses and risk assessment, Lynker Intel partners with private and public organizations to operationalize climate change impact analytics, projections of population growth and subsequent increases in vulnerable assets, as well as other changes influencing hazard and risk exposure, in order to make better business and adaptation decisions for the future impacts of hazards. Decisions that must be made now.

Ocean Storm Waves Crashing into Seawall in front of Houses

Hydrologic Modeling and Forecasting

Lynker Intel has expert hydrologists with strong expertise in field work, data analysis, research, modeling, forecasting, and developing actionable data products across all water environments. We work with a holistic approach to solve water-related issues by considering the combined effect of weather, climate, water and human management.