HR: 14:00h
AN: H53G-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Physical Assessment of the Opportunities for Improved Management of the Water Resources of the Bi-National Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin
AU: * Aparicio, J
EM: japaricio@tlaloc.imta.mx
AF: Mexican Institute of Water Technology, Paseo Cuauhnéhuac 8532 Progreso, Jiutepec, Mor 62550, Mexico
AU: McKinney, D
EM: daene@aol.com
AF: The University of Texas at Austin , Center for Research in Water Resources , Austin, TX 78712, United States
AU: Valdes, J
EM: jvaldes@u.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, Civil Engineering and Eng. Mechanics Dept., Tucson, AZ 85721-0072, United States
AU: Guitron, A
EM: aguitron@tlaloc.imta.mx
AF: Mexican Institute of Water Technology, Paseo Cuauhnéhuac 8532 Progreso, Jiutepec, Mor 62550, Mexico
AU: Thomas, G
EM: gthomas@n-h-i.org
AF: Natural Heritage Institute, 100 Pine Street, Suite 1550, San Francisco, CA 94111, United States
AB: The hydro-physical opportunities for expanding the beneficial uses of the fixed water supply in the Rio Grande/Bravo Basin to better satisfy an array of water management goals are examined. These include making agriculture more resilient to periodic conditions of drought, improving the reliability of supplies to cities and towns, and restoring lost environmental functions in the river system. This is a comprehensive, outcome-neutral, model- based planning exercise performed by some 20 technical, primarily non-governmental institutions from both countries, aimed at proposing strategies that can reduce future conflicts over water throughout the entire basin. The second track consists in generating a set of future water management scenarios that respond to the needs and objectives of the basin stakeholders in each segment and each country. An array of scenarios for improved water management has been developed for the lower Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin in Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Another set under development will focus on the Rio Conchos and the El Paso/Juarez region. Eventually, scenarios will be generated such that will comprehend the entire basin on both sides of the border. These scenarios are the product of consultations with agricultural water districts, governmental organizations and environmental NGOs. They include strategies for reducing the physical losses of water in the system, conservation transfers, improvements in the operations of the Mexican and international reservoirs, improvements in environmental flow conditions, improvements in reliability of water supplies, and drought coping strategies.These scenarios will be evaluated for hydrologic feasibility by the basin-wide model and the gaming exercises. Modeling is necessary to understand how these options will affect the entire system and how they can be crafted to maximize the benefits and avoid unintended or uncompensated effects. The scenarios that have the potential to provide large mutual benefits to all stakeholders in the basin will then be subjected to an economic feasibility analysis, and, finally, a legal and political feasibility analysis. The scenario development, hydrologic modeling, economic and institutional analysis will culminate in the presentation of technical recommendations to policy-makers on both sides of the border on the potential for improved water management in the basin.
DE: 1819 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1880 Water management (6334)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly