BRINGING THE TOOLS TOGETHER

1. BRINGING THE TOOLS TOGETHER Glenn Patterson

2. 2002 Report to Congress

3. How do we measure water availability? • At its core, a water availability assessment tells us the status and trends in storage volumes, flow rates, and uses of water for a given area. • Water quality must be considered.

4. Flow Rates means… • Runoff • Recharge • Evapotranspiration • Interbasin transfers, and • Other components of the water cycle

5. And speaking of runoff monitoring… • Each year some new streamgages are installed and some are discontinued. • Even with the increases we are likely to see a net reduction in the size of the network due to reductions in budgets of our funding partners. • Many of the discontinued streamgages have long periods of record.

9. Water Availability as a National Issue • CENR Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality (SWAQ) • ‘05 Report-Science and Technology to Support Freshwater Availability • http://www.ostp.gov/NSTC/html/swaqreport_2-1-05.pdf • Upcoming report—Spring 2007 • Working Groups

10. SWAQ Working Groups(so far) • Microbial Source Tracking • Improve Hydrologic Prediction Models and Their Applications • Collaborative Tools and Processes for US Water Solutions

11. Water Availability in the West USGS Circular 1261 by M.T. Anderson and L.H. Woosley (Published in 2005) http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2005/circ1261/

12. Many of the same issues discussed on today’s agenda, plus… • Patterns of ground-water declines

13. Water-use patterns and distribution

14. Consumptive water use

15. Water quality and habitat issues • Urbanization • Irrigation return flows • Naturally occurring arsenic • Saltcedar • Mines • Endangered species, biodiversity, and habitat

16. Making the information useful to Managers We’ve seen a variety of tools and techniques that can help determine water availability. How can the information be summarized in a useful way for water managers?

17. USGS Water Availability Screening Tool Cooperator : Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Courtesy of: Marla Stuckey, USGS, Pennsylvania

18. Pennsylvania Water Resources Planning Act (Act 220) • Passed in 2002 • Tasks include: • Assess surface and groundwater resources • Assess existing and projected water use • Identify critical water planning areas • Create critical area resource plans

19. Screening Tool Development • Surface Water Availability • Determined by 7-Day, 10-Year low-flow statistic and net water use within a basin • Determined for approximately 10,000 watersheds • Pour points of watersheds colored to indicate water availability • PaDEP managers will be able to edit water use at pour points • Projected future demands • Requested water use • Supplemental water use data

20. Screening Tool Development 3 Major Components: • Hydrologic, statistical, and water-use data • Development of regression equations • Compilation of water use data • Spatial data elements for geographic analysis • GIS data preparation – 10m DEMs • User system to access the water-planning information • Desktop application

21. Available Desktop Application Functions • Show Basin • Edit Basin • Fraction Supply • Recalc Selected Area • Save Scenario • Load Saved Scenario • Reload to Baseline • Recalc Entire

22. Show Basin Function

23. Edit Basin Function

24. Recalculate water availability to determine effects of edits on downstream pour points Recalculate Function

25. More Functionality

26. Percent Supply Function 100% 7Q10 50% 7Q10

27. What do YOU think? • Will these tools help you? • What information do you need to understand and manage your State’s water availability?