RIO GRANDE CONSUMPTIVE USE ANALYSIS LINKED TO SURFACE AND GROUND WATER MODELS

摘要

The State of Colorado is in the process of developing the Colorado Decision Support System that includes central database and GIS storage of water related data, plus models developed by river basins to answer water development and conservation questions. The Decision Support System developed for the Rio Grande Basin in Colorado requires modeling tools that accurately represent the interactions between surface water use and ground water pumping; agricultural diversions and ground water recharge; and consumptive use and river return flow timing. A consumptive use model was developed to estimate the historic supply-limited crop consumptive use in the basin, estimate supplemental or primary pumping when pumping data is unavailable, and determine the amount of applied water that is available for recharge or river return. This information was then linked to a surface water model and a ground water model using a GIS interface and time-series data files.