The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water Resources and Flow Model in the Paso del Norte Watershed (Phase III) Part I Lower Rio Grande Flood Control Model [LRGFCM] RiverWare Model Development

This report fulfills the deliverables required by the cooperative agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Texas AgriLife Research (TAES/03-PL-02: Modification No. 3) on behalf of the Paso del Norte Watershed Council. Tasks accomplished in this phase include (a) assess the data availability for expansion of the URGWOM model, identify data gaps, generate data needed from historic data using empirical methods, compile and verify the water quality data for reaches between the Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas; (b) develop the RiverWareTM physical model for the Rio Grande flow for the selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso, beginning with a conceptual model for interaction of surface water and groundwater in the Rincon and Mesilla valleys, and within the limits of available data; (c) implement data transfer interface between the coordinated database and hydrologic models.

This Project was conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) under the direction of Zhuping Sheng of TAMU and J. Phillip King of New Mexico State University. It was developed to enhance the coordinated database, which was originally developed by the Paso del Norte Watershed Council with support of El Paso Water Utilities to fulfill needs for better management of regional water resources and to expand the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM) to cover the river reaches between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico, and Fort Quitman, Texas. In Phases I and II of this Project (TAES/03-PL-02), hydrological data needed for flow model development were compiled and data gaps were identified and conceptual model development. The objectives of this phase were to develop a physical model of the Rio Grande flow between Elephant Butte Dam and American Dam by using data collected in the first development phase of the PdNWC/Corps Coordinated Water Resources Database and to enhance the data portal capabilities of the PdNWC Coordinated Database Project.

This report is Part I of a three part completion report for Phase III and describes the development of RiverWare model of Rio Grande flows and a coordinated database for water related resources in the Rio Grande watershed. The RiverWare physical model for Rio Grande flows included selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso using historical data from 1985 to 1999. A conceptual model for interaction of surface and groundwater was developed using an ARIMA time-series transfer function analysis. ARIMA transfer functions are used as a means to estimate the nteractions of surface and groundwater. Forecasting drain flows from diversion flows is demonstrated as a statistically valid method, and provides results highly correlated with the historic values.