
That’s because 80 percent of the water that falls as snow in the Rockies here drains to the west, while 80 percent of the population resides on the east side of the divide. Many more trans-basin diversions of water from the west side of the divide to the east would follow. Hand dug in the late 19th century with shovels and picks by Japanese crews, it was the first trans-basin diversion of the Colorado. The ditch collects water as the snow melts and, because it is higher in elevation than La Poudre Pass, funnels it 14 miles back across the Continental Divide, where it empties it into the headwaters of the Cache La Poudre River, which flows on to alfalfa and row crop farmers in eastern Colorado. Cut across the face of these glacier-etched peaks is the Grand Ditch, an incision visible just above the timber line. The Never Summer Mountains tower over the the valley to the west. This valley is where the nascent river falls prey to its first diversion - 30 percent of its water is taken before it reaches the stream to irrigate distant fields. Several miles later, in Rocky Mountain National Park’s Kawuneeche Valley, the Colorado River Trail allows hikers to walk along its course and, during low water, even jump across it. A large marsh creates a small trickle of a stream at La Poudre Pass, and thus begins the long, labyrinthine 1,450-mile journey of one of America’s great waterways. Geographical information systems, international scientific collaboration, and basin and transdisciplinary approaches, could accelerate bridging gaps while new research, rehabilitation, management and conservation, and socio-economic opportunities are developed in parallel.The beginnings of the mighty Colorado River on the west slope of Rocky Mountain National Park are humble.
#When the river runs dry meaning drivers
We found relevant gaps on NCP and how they affect the different components of well-being, and the effect of indirect drivers of change on them. We especially identified regulating NCP but to a lesser extent, also material and non-material NCP affected by land use change, climate change, overexploitation, and demographic, political and economic changes. Secondly, we analysed DR distribution, NCP and drivers of change using mapping techniques, descriptive statistics and bibliographic analysis respectively. Firstly, we analysed the main research trends using publication rates and bibliometric techniques. To this end, a systematic review of 79 scientific documents (26 case studies, 53 evidence-based works) published between 19 was conducted. This study aims to provide the state of the art on DR in terms of geographic distribution, NCP, human well-being and drivers of change, and to identify knowledge gaps and the tools to bridge them. DR have often been undervalued by some scientific and social groups in terms of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) because of the lack of an integrative perspective to encompass them and their high aridity and low flow. Unlike intermittent and ephemeral rivers, they are disconnected from groundwater and do not support aquatic life. Dry rivers (DR) are a non-perennial type of river that flows for only hours or a few days, primarily after heavy rain that often causes flash floods.
