Water RAPIDS: Desert LCC Environmental Flows Database

Feb. 27, 2015
Projected water deficits mean land and water managers must be proactive in their management of rivers and shallow aquifers if they want to maintain the ecosystems dependent upon them. To manage these resources, managers and decision makers need easy access to the best techniques available for determining how much water ecosystems need.
 
The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), in partnership with Northern Arizona University (NAU), have embarked on a Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) wide database of environmental flow needs and responses to help water and land managers make decisions about water for riparian and aquatic species and ecosystems. The database will collect information from the Chihuahuan, Mojave, and Sonoran deserts of the U.S. and Mexico.  
 
The goals of this project are:
1) to understand the critical data gaps in flow need and flow response data in the Desert LCC (especially related to baseflow dependent streams);
2) to develop a user-friendly, one-stop-shop for managers and researchers on existing data on flow needs and responses in the Desert LCC; and
3) make recommendations for next steps to create a guidebook that can be used by managers to evaluate and implement environmental flow methodologies.
 
The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a tool that will enable more resilient and effective management of riparian and aquatic systems.