Optimization of Water Resources Management in the Upper Santa Cruz River

Location: Arizona
Sponsors: Water Resources Research Center, University of Arizona
Start Date: May 2017
PI/Co-PIs: Dr. Eylon Shamir (HRC)
Collaborators: Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), SCAMA Augmentation and Conservation Fund, Water Resources Research Center (WRRC)


This project involved the development of a one-stop portal Water Resources Climate Assessment Tool [WARCAT] that is designed to serve pertinent and timely information with respect to decision making for optimal water resources management and planning at the Santa Cruz Active Management Area (SCAMA).  To accomplish this, HRC developed a custom designed website offering a collection of tools to support water resources management for the Upper Santa Cruz River, focusing on the Santa Cruz River between the border crossing near Nogales and the International Wastewater Treatment Plant.  The website provides the following  information: an automatic feed of the realtime Arizona Department of Water Resources groundwater level data; an automatic realtime feed of four U. S. Geological Survey streamflow stations for the SCAMA domain; an automatic realtime feed of 27 U.S. National Weather Service rainfall stations for the SCAMA and adjacent regions; an automatic realtime feed for the Mexico Water Agency (CONAGUA) rainfall station from Nogales, Sonora Mexico; and an automatic realtime feed for surface meteorological data from the Nogales airport through the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center.  In addition HRC had designed time series graphics and the functionality to show recent historical conditions with respect to various indices and evaluated the skill of the rainfall forecasts (1-to 4-month lead times) from the Coupled Forecast System (CFS) in the SCAMA.

Link to the WARCAT Webpage