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Wiring Diagram for the Water Resources project RiverWare

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NASA Products for Improving Reclamation RiverWare and AWARDS ET Tool Box DSTs for Water Availability and Forecasting

Investigators: Kristi Arsenault (UMBC/GEST/NASA/GSFC), David Toll (NASA/GSFC), Edwin. T. Engman (NASA/GSFC/SAIC), S. Bowser (BoR), R. Stodt (BoR/TSC), S. Hunter (BoR), A. Brower, and A. Pinheiro (ORAU/NASA/GSFC)

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to study and apply NASA LIS modeling and information with MODIS, and AMSR-E satellite products to improve the performance of Bureau of Reclamation RiverWare and AWARDS ET Tool Box DSTs which are used in water availability and forecasting for reservoir management and related water management purposes in the western US.

The main goals of this collaboration with Reclamation involve customizing the integrated observation-based modeling system, LIS, and using NASA satellite products that meet the water management needs of their regional offices. The aim is to help improve and evaluate RiverWare,for reservoir management purposes, and the AWARDS ET-Toolbox for water consumption and hence water supply in irrigated, agricultural areas. Selected LIS soil moisture, snow and ET products, and satellite MODIS snow cover, ET and land cover products are the primary focus for inclusion in Reclamation's DSTs. Both retrospective studies and near real-time simulations are being evaluated and made available to investigate where monitoring and forecasting of water supply and extreme events, like flooding, could be improved. Study areas for these projects focus primarily on the Yakima and the Middle Rio Grande River Basins.


NASA Products

Terra - MODIS, Aqua - MODIS, AMSR-E, Model - LDAS/LIS


Project Partners

Bureau of Reclamation (BoR)


Decision Support Tools

The BoR RiverWare is a reservoir regulation DSS supported by both BoR and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). RiverWare simulates the routing of the river flow operations through dams and hydropower plants and maintains water delivery contracts to irrigators and to recreational, municipal, and industrial users. Even though BoR uses several hydrological modeling tools for RiverWare, spatially-distributed fields available from NASA such as soil moisture and snowpack are not fully accounted for in their operations. Including NASA fields of soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and snowpack in their operations should help increase the accuracy of Reclamation's water resource accounting.

The Bureau of Reclamation operates AWARDS to assess the amount of water available for agriculture. These assessments are used to portion out limited water resources for various agricultural interests while retaining a portion for other uses (ecosystems, recreation, commerce, etc.). Potential NASA data products that can be used as inputs by AWARDS, include snow (liquid water equivalent), evapotranspiration, and soil moisture derived primarily from NASA MODIS and LIS data. RiverWare is a modeling system developed by CADSWES (Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems) and supported by Reclamation and the Tennessee Valley Authority. It is used to model water availability in several regions of the U.S., primarily to inform water policy decision makers and water managers on water availability and best management practices.


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Date Last Modified: 08/11/09
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration