Spring 2013 Water Seminar Series - “Integrated Hydrologic Models: Building New Tools for Water Management”

Proper management of water resources is becoming increasingly important, in part due to climate variability, especially in the American Midwest where significant irrigation has already depleted available water sources. Projected changes in precipitation and temperature will increase the stress on water resources in the Midwest, as it is anticipated to increase irrigation demand. In order to help guide future water management decisions integrated hydrologic models have been employed to predict groundwater and surface water conditions under future scenarios, including climate variability and water use changes. The use of reservoirs, irrigation canals and other operational structures can pose difficulties in properly simulating both the natural hydrologic environment and the man made water operations. This presentation will focus on the continuing development of a coupled integrated hydrologic/surface water operations model. This model will allow water management decisions such as the timing and magnitude of reservoir releases and the management of irrigation canals to be accurately captured with a physically-based representation of the surface water and groundwater flow systems. This model is being developed as part of a large multi-state research study to evaluate alternatives to optimize surface and groundwater use in the Lower Republican River Basin.