Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The term “dead pool” has been circulating in water resources discourse in multiple ways, prompting confusion about what it means. In this commentary, we aim to clarify the definition of dead pool (and related terms describing critical reservoir elevations) to encourage clearer conversations about reservoir storage decline going forward. We also make two arguments to animate future research about the shallows of reservoirs. First, we suggest that critical reservoir thresholds such as dead pool are better thought of as dynamic and multifaceted rather than as static and singular elevations. Second, we offer a typology that aims to distinguish among three different types of reservoir storage decline. Taken together, a shared vocabulary about reservoir levels and a more nuanced conceptualization of how reservoirs shrink can better situate water scholars and policymakers to understand and manage reservoirs in an era of water overuse and climate change.
Source: Water Resources Research
DOI: 10.1029/2025wr041330
Authors: Adrianne C. Kroepsch, Eleanor Andrews, Surabhi Upadhyay, Adrienne Marshall
Institution: Colorado School of Mines
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
Awards: Collaborative Research: CAS-Climate: Reservoir dead pool in the western United States: probability and consequences of a novel extreme event, G5564693668, Collaborative Research: CAS-Climate: Reservoir dead pool in the western United States: probability and consequences of a novel extreme event
OpenAlex ID: W4414928681