Coordinated Collaboration
Water resources database jointly developed
By Danielle Supercinski
Through collaboration between RGBI and other universities, researchers developed a Coordinated Water Resources Database and GIS Web site to assist water users, stakeholders and state and federal agencies in daily operations and long-term planning of water resources.
Dr. Zhuping Sheng, assistant professor at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC) at El Paso, teaming with Dr. Ari Michelsen of El Paso AREC and Dr. Raghavan Srinivasan of Spatial Sciences Laboratory, has developed successful collaborations with Drs. Christopher Brown, Bobby Creel, J. Phillip King and Sue Tillery of New Mexico State University (NMSU); Dr. Alfredo Granados, Universidad Autonomos de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ); and the Paso del Norte Watershed Council on the development of the Coordinated Water Resources Database and GIS Web site as well as model development for Rio Grande flows.
Sheng has also developed a collaborative research program with Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk, Department of Earth and Physical Sciences chair at Sul Ross State University, by co-supervising a research assistant and sharing regional water resource data needed for enhancement of groundwater availability models (GAMs) to better understand aquifers and water availability in West Texas.
“Through collaboration with Urbanczyk as director of the Sustainable Agricultural Water Conservation project, which focuses on the regional groundwater resources in Far West Texas, regional water resources data is being expanded and shared,” Sheng said. “An outcome of this collaboration is enhancement of the GAMs and a better, more accurate understanding of water resources and regional water planning.”
The water resources in the Paso del Norte region are shared by three states and two nations (Texas and New Mexico on the U.S. side and Chihuahua on the Mexico side). The region covers Hudspeth and El Paso counties in Texas; Doña Ana and Sierra counties in New Mexico; and Juarez Valley in Chihuahua.
“Agencies’ support and collaboration among researchers from different organizations and institutes were extremely important for developing the Coordinated Water Resources Database and GIS Web site and sharing of data,” Sheng said.
Historically, the flow and water quality of the Rio Grande from Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico, down to Fort Quitman, Texas, were separately measured and recorded at several points by federal agencies such as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC); irrigation districts such as Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) and El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 (EPCWID#1), El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU), the City of Las Cruces and others. Each agency did it solely for achieving its mission with limited sharing of data and lack of coordination.
“This absence of real-time data-sharing and related coordination frequently led to unnecessary duplication of efforts, inefficient use of agency and institutional resources and contributed to challenges in water resources planning and management,” Sheng said.
Now the Coordinated Water Resources Database and GIS Web site (accessible at http://www.pdnwc.org/ by going to “Interactive GIS Projects”) is providing broad open access and sharing of numerous federal, state, city and irrigation district databases and information.
“This is helping water suppliers, users and scientists to understand and more effectively manage water resources in the region,” he said.
In 2000, Texas A&M University and NMSU initiated formal collaboration to scientifically address common water resource issues in south central New Mexico and West Texas. To date, more than 13 research and outreach projects have been completed or are ongoing.
“The objective is to facilitate, promote and efficiently conduct joint and cooperative water resources related research, Extension and outreach programs of mutual interest to both institutions,” said Michelsen, resident director at the Agricultural Research and Extension Center at El Paso.
One of the results of this collaboration is the development of the Rio Grande flood control model for the Paso del Norte region using RiverWare modeling software, which has been developed by the Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. RiverWare is designed to provide river basin managers with a tool for scheduling, forecasting and planning reservoir operations as well as for flood control.
The flood control model is designed to simulate Rio Grande flows for flood control planning for selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso, Texas. This model constitutes an important part of the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM) project, which was originally developed by six federal agencies to assess flood control planning, water accounting and water operations alternatives for the Upper Rio Grande Basin (http://www.spa.usace.army.mil/urgwom/default.asp).
Another important component in the flood control model configuration is the interaction of surface water and groundwater. A conceptual model for interaction of surface water and groundwater was developed using a time-series transfer function analysis of the relationship between diversions and drain flows using historical data from 1985 to 1999. The modeling results closely represented the historic flow conditions.
“It should also be noted that this project also fostered an international collaboration across the U.S.–Mexico border, where both groundwater and surface water are shared,” Sheng said. Sheng works closely with Granados at UACJ in sharing water resources and land uses data. Granados has provided information about water resources, land uses and GIS coverage of groundwater wells in Ciudad Juárez, and the canals and ditches of the Valle de Juárez Irrigation District 009 in the Juárez Lower Valley, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Granados said in his report that water needs in this region have changed in recent years from being primarily for agricultural purposes to domestic and industrial needs. Irrigation districts in Mexico have played an important role for the agricultural economics of the region and for the general economic standards of the entire country. Mexico has improved throughout time on applying technology and generating inventories and statistics on the type of crop, volume of crop estimates and economic revenue of agricultural products.
“The next phase of this project will expand the database and GIS Web site by incorporating more real-time water quality monitoring stations,” Sheng said. “It will also expand the flood control model to cover more reaches between El Paso and Fort Quitman for flood control planning and will enhance the model by integrating interfaces or linkage for simulating surface water and groundwater interaction.”
A technical project report, “The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water resources and Flow Model in the Paso del Norte Watershed (Phase III),” was completed. Three technical reports have been prepared and will be published jointly by New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (NMWRRI) and Texas Water Research Institute (TWRI). They will be available soon at http://wrri.nmsu.edu or http://twri.tamu.edu or can be requested through both institutes.
“Agencies’ support is crucial for the success of this project,” Sheng said.
The following agencies have either provided funding for implementation of the project or supported data access and sharing: USBR; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); RGBI; IBWC; USGS; EPWU; EPCWID#1 and EBID; Paso del Norte Watershed Council; New Mexico–Texas Water Commission; TAMU; NMSU; UACJ; NMWRRI and TWRI.
“Special thanks go to Michael Fahy of EPWU; Gail Stockton, April Sanders and Michael Fies of the USACE; Conrad Keys Jr., consulting for USACE; Woodrow Irving and Mike Landis of USBR; Bill Harris and Allan Jones of RGBI; and the technical committee members of the Paso Del Norte Watershed Council for their continued support and leadership in managing funded projects,” Sheng said.
