Multi-Agency Cooperative Modeling on the Upper Rio Grande

As fresh-water resources in the western United States and the world are pushed beyond their sustainable limits by new and growing demands, increased efficiency in management of water resources is of critical importance if water managers are to reduce social conflict and environmental damages often associated with water scarcity. Computer models and simulations can provide an invaluable tool to inform water management decisions, and can be broadly grouped into two categories: high resolution, computationally intensive models run offline with results communicated to stake holders and policy makers, and lower resolution models that are user friendly and fast enough to allow rapid scenario evaluation by stake holders and policy makers themselves. Ideally, a water manager will have both options available, a rapid scoping model that can be used for real-time, preliminary analysis of a myriad of scenarios, and more spatially/temporally resolved models that can be used for more in depth analysis of preferred strategies. Currently, the main surface water model resource available to decision makers in New Mexico's Rio Grande basin is the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM), a daily time-step water operations model for the Upper Rio Grande basin utilizing the numerical software package RiverWare, capable of simulating the hydrology, water storage and delivery operations in the Rio Grande from the Colorado Border to Caballo Reservoir in New Mexico. Because of its size, URGWOM scenario runs are limited to 10 years, evaluate a finite number of scenarios, and take many hours to run. Water decisions and system understanding would benefit significantly from a monthly time-step water operations tool able to mimic the physical system and allow stakeholders to directly interact with the data in real time. That is, a tool that allows the water manager, decision maker, stakeholder, model builder, and public to explore "what if" scenarios to test alternative management strategies and to better understand the cause and effect relations governing the hydraulic system. To develop such a tool, Sandia National Laboratories and the URGWOM technical team have collaborated on development and review of a rapid, monthly timestep model that can be used for rapid approximations of URGWOM behavior. This paper documents the high level development of this decision support tool.