Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model Update, Data Collection, and Analysis for Sustainability Active
The Pajaro Valley is home to a billion-dollar agricultural industry, providing food and food processing services for the nation. The water for these enterprises is supplied, in large part, by the groundwater resources (aquifers) in the area. The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PV Water) and the USGS have partnered to improve aquifer monitoring software, allowing better quantification and management of resources.
In addition to PV Water, the USGS, and other federal agencies, the data benefits water resource managers, farmers, industry, and the general public. The information helps facilitate effective water management, balancing the needs of urban, agricultural, and environmental demands.
Moreover, water agencies must fulfill requirements laid out in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Agencies that manage basins throughout California, including PV Water, are tasked with creating groundwater sustainability plans by January 2020. These plans must quantify groundwater storage and develop sustainable, operational withdrawal thresholds. Essential data about subsidence and surface-water availability will aid the region in developing sustainable management criteria and in managing water resources. Rigorous assessment of this data will enable managers to forecast potential undesired outcomes of unsustainable groundwater use.
Objective
Hydrologic model budgets and self-updating models will be developed and used to update the existing Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model (PVHM). This work will enable regular model updates and periodic calibrations necessary for annual SGMA reporting. The newly collected data will aide future evaluation of surface-water availability and establish if subsidence is occurring in the basin. The tools will be freely available to the public, and to other model users and water managers.
Science Plan
The USGS is partnering with PV Water staff to develop tools to update the existing historical groundwater model with additional data from 2014 to 2020 and provide relevant budget data for Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) compliance. Scientists will work with staff to calibrate the model, assist with development of SGMA metrics and milestones, and assist in developing a hydrologic budget and SGMA metric reporting tools.
They will provide a data release of model updates, install a new stream gage, and evaluate and report on subsidence in the basin. A more rigorous representation of temporal climate and surface water variability, agricultural water demands, and better documentation of model input and output, will help to provide a frame of reference for additional analysis of changing land use and potential effects of surface-water and groundwater use.
Simulation of Water Resources Management in the Pajaro Valley
Detection and measurement of land-surface deformation, Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, California, 2015–18
Analysis of projected water availability with current basin management plan, Pajaro Valley, California
Integrated hydrologic model of Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Nitrate dynamics within the Pajaro River, a nutrient-rich, losing stream
Geohydrologic Framework of Recharge and Seawater Intrusion in the Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Geohydrology of Recharge and Seawater Intrusion in the Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Documentation of model input and output values for the geohydrology and mathematical simulation of the Pajaro Valley aquifer system, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, California
Geohydrology and mathematical simulation of the Pajaro Valley aquifer system, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Origins of seawater intrusion in a coastal aquifer - A case study of the Pajaro Valley, California
Seawater intrusion, ground-water pumpage, ground-water yield, and artificial recharge of the Pajaro Valley area, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Geology and ground water of the Pajaro Valley area, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
The Pajaro Valley is home to a billion-dollar agricultural industry, providing food and food processing services for the nation. The water for these enterprises is supplied, in large part, by the groundwater resources (aquifers) in the area. The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PV Water) and the USGS have partnered to improve aquifer monitoring software, allowing better quantification and management of resources.
In addition to PV Water, the USGS, and other federal agencies, the data benefits water resource managers, farmers, industry, and the general public. The information helps facilitate effective water management, balancing the needs of urban, agricultural, and environmental demands.
Moreover, water agencies must fulfill requirements laid out in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Agencies that manage basins throughout California, including PV Water, are tasked with creating groundwater sustainability plans by January 2020. These plans must quantify groundwater storage and develop sustainable, operational withdrawal thresholds. Essential data about subsidence and surface-water availability will aid the region in developing sustainable management criteria and in managing water resources. Rigorous assessment of this data will enable managers to forecast potential undesired outcomes of unsustainable groundwater use.
Objective
Hydrologic model budgets and self-updating models will be developed and used to update the existing Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model (PVHM). This work will enable regular model updates and periodic calibrations necessary for annual SGMA reporting. The newly collected data will aide future evaluation of surface-water availability and establish if subsidence is occurring in the basin. The tools will be freely available to the public, and to other model users and water managers.
Science Plan
The USGS is partnering with PV Water staff to develop tools to update the existing historical groundwater model with additional data from 2014 to 2020 and provide relevant budget data for Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) compliance. Scientists will work with staff to calibrate the model, assist with development of SGMA metrics and milestones, and assist in developing a hydrologic budget and SGMA metric reporting tools.
They will provide a data release of model updates, install a new stream gage, and evaluate and report on subsidence in the basin. A more rigorous representation of temporal climate and surface water variability, agricultural water demands, and better documentation of model input and output, will help to provide a frame of reference for additional analysis of changing land use and potential effects of surface-water and groundwater use.
- Science
Simulation of Water Resources Management in the Pajaro Valley
Two key hydrologic issues in all coastal aquifer systems are the delineation and the management of the renewable water resources. The proper development and management of the renewable resources helps to minimize ground-water mining of the lower aquifer systems, and minimizes overdraft and seawater intrusion of the upper aquifer system while maximizing the sustainable yield of the renewable water... - Publications
Detection and measurement of land-surface deformation, Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, California, 2015–18
Land-surface deformation (subsidence) caused by groundwater withdrawal is identified as an undesirable result in the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency’s Basin Management Plan and California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. In Pajaro Valley, groundwater provides nearly 90 percent of the total water supply. To aid the development of sustainable groundwater management criteria, the U.S.AuthorsJustin T. Brandt, Marisa M. Earll, Michelle Sneed, Wesley R. HensonAnalysis of projected water availability with current basin management plan, Pajaro Valley, California
The projection and analysis of the Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model (PVHM) 34 years into the future using MODFLOW with the Farm Process (MF-FMP) facilitates assessment of potential future water availability. The projection is facilitated by the integrated hydrologic model, MF-FMP that fully couples the simulation of the use and movement of water from precipitation, streamflow, runoff, groundwater flAuthorsRandall T. Hanson, Brian Lockwood, Wolfgang SchmidIntegrated hydrologic model of Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Increasing population, agricultural development (including shifts to more water-intensive crops), and climate variability are placing increasingly larger demands on available groundwater resources in the Pajaro Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This study provided a refined conceptual model, geohydrologic framework, and integrated hydrologic model of the PajaroAuthorsRandall T. Hanson, Wolfgang Schmid, Claudia C. Faunt, Jonathan Lear, Brian LockwoodNitrate dynamics within the Pajaro River, a nutrient-rich, losing stream
The major ion chemistry of water from an 11.42-km reach of the Pajaro River, a losing stream in central coastal California, shows a consistent pattern of higher concentrations during the 2nd (dry) half of the water year. Most solutes are conserved during flow along the reach, but [NO3−] decreases by ~30% and is accompanied by net loss of channel discharge and extensive surface–subsurface exchange.AuthorsC.R. Ruehl, A.T. Fisher, Huertos M. Los, Scott D. Wankel, C.G. Wheat, Carol Kendall, C.E. Hatch, C. ShennanGeohydrologic Framework of Recharge and Seawater Intrusion in the Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Pajaro Valley is a coastal watershed of 160 square miles located along Monterey Bay north of Elkhorn Slough and south of the city of Santa Cruz. The valley has been predominantly developed for agriculture since the late 1800s. In 1984 the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA) was formed and was delegated with the responsibility of the management of the water resources within the Pajaro ValAuthorsRandall T. HansonGeohydrology of Recharge and Seawater Intrusion in the Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA), has completed the collection and analyses of geologic, hydrologic, geophysical, and geochemical data in the coastal aquifer systems of the Pajaro Valley (fig. 1). These data were collected to delineate the geohydrologic framework of seawater intrusion, as well as, the source, age, and movementAuthorsRandall T. HansonDocumentation of model input and output values for the geohydrology and mathematical simulation of the Pajaro Valley aquifer system, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, California
This report contains listings of the model input and sample output for simulation of the Pajaro Valley aquifer system, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California. The files are contained on a 5 1/4-inch diskette. The decompressed files require approximately 5.3 megabytes of disk space on an IBM-compatible microcomputer. (USGS)AuthorsH. T. Mitten, C. J. LondquistGeohydrology and mathematical simulation of the Pajaro Valley aquifer system, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
Groundwater development has resulted in lowered water levels and seawater intrusion in the Pajaro Valley, California. An investigation was undertaken to describe the geohydrology of the groundwater flow system and to evaluate the response of the system to pumping stresses by using a mathematical model. The aquifer system consists of three aquifers. The lower aquifer is in fluvial sequences of QuatAuthorsM. J. Johnson, C. J. Londquist, Julie Laudon, H. T. MittenOrigins of seawater intrusion in a coastal aquifer - A case study of the Pajaro Valley, California
Seawater may enter and contaminate stratified coastal aquifers through a number of different pathways. These pathways and their relative contribution are examined in the Pajaro Valley, California, a coastal area with extensive groundwater development. This study considers three pathways of possible intrusion of the primary confined aquifer: (1) onshore leakage from brackish sources, the estuary anAuthorsL.D. Bond, J. D. BredehoeftSeawater intrusion, ground-water pumpage, ground-water yield, and artificial recharge of the Pajaro Valley area, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
The Pajaro Valley area, California, covering about 120 square miles (310 km2), extends from the southern part of Santa Cruz County to several miles south of the county line into Monterey County. It borders the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Santa Cruz Mountains on the east. The city of Watsonville is the largest center of population.Seawater intrusion is occurring in the Pajaro Valley area fromAuthorsK. S. MuirGeology and ground water of the Pajaro Valley area, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California
The Pajaro Valley area, California, covering about 120 square miles, extends from the southern part of Santa Cruz County to several miles south of the county line into Monterey County. It borders the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Santa Cruz Mountains on the east. The city of Watsonville is the largest center of population. Deposits that range in age from Pliocene to Holocene make up the groAuthorsK. S. Muir - Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.