Develop Water Management Methods for Watersheds Subject to Intensive Development: Partial Project Completion Report

Abstract

In dealing with water management methods for a watershed possibly subject to intensive development in the future, such as the Sonoita Creek Basin in Arizona, a model of the hydrologic system is the only possible link between the hydrologist and the systems engineer. The water balance picture that was taken by the hydrologist has to be advanced up to a point in which the response of the aquifer considered, to different water policies, will be known. At this point the integration between the environment and its management can be properly addressed. From a standpoint of the hydrologist, a model is therefore the overall goal of his study. Such a model will enable him to simulate the relationships between recharge, discharge and ground-water elevation. Consequently, a water balance model was calibrated, and a working routine with the model was developed that was used by the systems engineers.