Hydrological Feasibility of Environmental Flows in the Rio Grande/Bravo Basin

摘要

Due to high water demand, the scarcity of water resources, and the complexity ofwater allocation in the Rio Grande/Bravo basin, environmental flows have not beenconsidered as an integral part of the water management in this basin. Importantenvironmental habitats such as the Big Bend National Park in the US, the NorthernChihuahuan desert, the Maderas del Carmen and the Ca?on de Santa Elena naturalreserves in Mexico are ecologically threatened because of the lack of environmentalwater management policies in the basin. Several efforts have been undertaken bygovernment agencies and non-governmental organizations in order to determine theenvironmental flows requirements for the basin. Even though environmental flows inseveral locations along the basin have been determined (e.g., the Rio Conchostributary), the quantification and availability of the water necessary to provide theseenvironmental flows has not been determined. In this paper we evaluate thehydrological feasibility of environmental flows in the Rio Conchos tributary to theRio Grande. This evaluation is done in a basin model constructed in the WaterEvaluation and Planning system (WEAP) software. An analysis of the available waterhas been defined to determine the amount of water required to provide theenvironmental flows. The description and evaluation of the environmental flows arepresented along with a comparison against the current water management policies.