Download Basin Study Program - All About Watersheds

What are Reclamation and its partners doing to
improve water supply projections, and to develop
adaptations and build resilience to climatic and
hydrologic changes in New Mexico?
22nd Annual New Mexico Water Dialogue
JANUARY 7, 2015, INDIAN PUEBLO CULTURAL CENTER,
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO
Dagmar Llewellyn,
Reclamation Albuquerque Area Office
Planning: How Can it Make a Difference?
Goals of this Workshop
• “How can our institutions for governing and
managing our water resources become more nimble
and responsive to accelerating climate change
impacts?
• How can planning help the State better address
funding for needed projects?
• And finally, how can we enhance dialogue,
cooperation, and coordinated action among local,
regional, state, and federal actors?”
Recent literature on
the impacts of
climate change on
western water
Incorporation of Climate-Change
Preparation into Reclamation’s Mission
WaterSMART Overview
WaterSMART
Water and
Energy
Efficiency
Grants
Basin Studies
Title XVI
Water
Reclamation
and Reuse
Drought
Resilience
Water
Conservation
Field Services
Basin
Study
Program
Basin
Study Program
WWCRA
Basin Studies
Baseline Assessment of
risks and impacts
Stakeholder engagement
Determine Imbalances in
Water Supply & Demand
Develop adaptation
strategies
Specified Areas
SECURE Guidance
Development
Water Delivery
Hydropower
Recreation at BOR facilities
Fish & Wildlife Habitat
Endangered, Threatened or
Candidate Species
Water Quality
Flow & Water dependent
ecological resiliency
Flood control management
Understand
risks in a
landscape
context
Applied
science tools
Supporting
resource
managers
Landscape Conservation
Cooperatives
West-Wide Climate Risk Assessment Activities:
Upper Rio Grande Impact Assessment
• Widely referenced within Middle
Rio Grande Community
• Used as Basis for Reclamation
Basin Studies, as well as other
planning studies in the
community such as:
• Albuquerque-Bernalillo
County Water Utility
Authority Water Plan.
• the DOT Volpe Center study
of transportation and landuse planning in the
Albuquerque area.
New Demands Report from West Wide Climate Risk
Assessment Team
http://www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART/wcra/index.html
Projected Changes at Elephant Butte
Reservoir
Updated
Hydroclimate
Projections
Draft report in review with the
West-Wide Climate Risk
Assessment Team
Mean
Percentage
Change in
Annual Runoff
across the
Western US
The biggest red
triangles are over
New Mexico
Draft figure
from the
Bureau of
Reclamation’s
SECURE
Report to
Congress for
2016
Lots of red
bars in the
southwest!
2016 SECURE Report to Congress
and Opportunities
Basin Study Program
•
Collaborative studies, cost-shared with nonFederal partners, to evaluate the impacts of
climate change and help ensure sustainable
water supplies by identifying strategies to
address imbalances in water supply and
demands
•
Eligible applicants include states, tribes,
water districts, cities, and other local
governmental entities with water delivery or
management authority located in the 17
Western States
•
Require 50/50 cost-share
Santa Fe Basin Study:
Adaptations to Projected Changes in Water Supply
and Demand
• Final study released to
public September 2015.
• Focus on municipal water.
• City of Santa Fe is acting on
recommendations of the
study, and has received a
Title XVI Grant from
Reclamation for a feasibility
study of Water Reuse.
Pecos Basin Study
• Scheduled for
completion June 2016
• Focus is on agricultural
adaptations to drought
and increased
variability
Middle Rio Grande Basin Study:
Plan of Study
• Received 2015 funding
from the Office of Policy
for collaboration with
partners to develop a plan
of study for a Middle Rio
Grande Basin Study
• Led by the Middle Rio
Grande Conservancy
District
• Project seeks to involve
all basin stakeholders in a
comprehensive basin
study
Landscape Conservation
Cooperatives
• Southern Rockies
LCC
– Has funded research
on forest resilience in
the Valles Caldera.
– Is funding climatechange vulnerability
assessments in the Rio
Grande Basin.
– Is developing
landscape scale
impact assessment in
the Rio Grande Basin
• Desert LCC
– Development of a Rio
Grande Basin-Wide
Forum.
– Assisting with Rio
Grande-focused
social-science
research out of the
South Central Climate
Science Center.
Department of Transportation – Volpe Center
Study of Transportation and Land-Use
Planning in the Albuquerque Area
USGS National Water Census:
Upper Rio Grande Focus Area Study
Watershed Futures
• The Albuquerque District of the Army Corps of
Engineers is convening regular meetings of
Federal agencies involved in climate-change
studies and adaptation.
Water Prize Competition:
Technologies for Suppression of Evaporation
from Reclamation Reservoirs
Water Prize Competition:
Development of web application and other
tools to better communicate forecasts,
information sources, and uncertainty
S&T Program Funding:
PACE Fellowship at the National Center for
Atmospheric Research
• To focus on
improvement of
short-term (monthly
to two-year) watersupply and waterdemand forecasts
for the Rio Grande
Basin, as well as the
Lower Colorado.
Reservoir Operations Pilots:
Study of management flexibility on the Rio
Chama to be funded by the Office of Policy
Middle Rio Grande Pueblo Irrigation
Efficiency Improvements
Under prior appropriation,
efficiency improvements to the
senior water rights lands
means more water left for
junior water rights lands
Incorporation of Climate-Change Projection
Information into Environmental Compliance
Efforts
• Rio Grande Project
Operating
Agreement
Environmental
Impact Statement
• Pojoaque Basin
Regional Water
System
Environmental
Impact Statement.
Overall message
• Reclamation’s Albuquerque Area Office is
taking advantage of available Reclamation
information and programs to provide
leadership in the Rio Grande Basin in the
projection of our future climate and water
supply, the development of adaptations to
projected changes, and the fostering of
resilient social-ecological systems in the Rio
Grande Basin.
Questions?