Walker Basin, Nevada Completed
Walker Basin is home to Walker Lake, a natural desert lake in Nevada at the terminus of the Walker River stream system of Nevada and California. Agricultural demand for water in the region has decreased the freshwater inflows to the lake. Since the early 1900’s, the lake’s elevation has been declining. Insufficient inflows of fresh water have contributed to an increase in salinity levels which threaten the ecological health of the lake. The lake is critical to recovery of the threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. It is also an important stopover for migratory waterfowl such as Common Loons (Walker Basin Restoration Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 2012).
In October of 2009, the Walker Basin Restoration Program (WBRP) was established through Public Law 111-85. The primary purpose of the project is to restore and maintain Walker Lake. Similarly to the Klamath River Basin, one of the initiatives within the WBRP is a Water Rights Acquisition Program. The program seeks voluntary water rights sales. A Decision Support Tool (DST) and Landsat imagery are used to help evaluate various scenarios associated with the WBRP. The DST consists of a supply side Precipitation Runoff Modeling System, MODFLOW groundwater model for the demand side, and the MODSIM river basin-management system. During these evaluations, METRIC evapotranspiration estimates based on Landsat imagery are compared to Nevada State Engineer Office evapotranspiration estimates used in the DST. The METRIC evapotranspiration estimates are related to consumptive use for individual fields. Landsat is also being used by the Nevada State Engineer’s Office to look at voluntary water-rights acquisition independently of DST modeling. This information will be available as a second opinion for the project. Landsat imagery was selected for use in this project due to its spatial resolution, thermal band and historical data archive. The thermal band allows the scientists to estimate consumptive use levels within the basin. The relatively high resolution enables consumptive-use estimates to be conducted at the field level, while archived data captures the historical consumptive use on a given plot of land. Additionally, Landsat data is available for use at no cost. No other operating satellite encompasses all of these characteristics, making Landsat unique and most suitable for use in the WBRP (Justin Huntington, Dessert Research Institute, oral commun. and written commun., 2013).
References:
Dr. Justin Huntington, Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute.
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 2012, Walker Basin restoration program: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, accessed July14, 2013, at http://www.nfwf.org/walkerbasin/Pages/home.aspx
- Overview
Walker Basin is home to Walker Lake, a natural desert lake in Nevada at the terminus of the Walker River stream system of Nevada and California. Agricultural demand for water in the region has decreased the freshwater inflows to the lake. Since the early 1900’s, the lake’s elevation has been declining. Insufficient inflows of fresh water have contributed to an increase in salinity levels which threaten the ecological health of the lake. The lake is critical to recovery of the threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. It is also an important stopover for migratory waterfowl such as Common Loons (Walker Basin Restoration Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 2012).
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media DetailsWalker Basin, Nevada. Photo by Mark Gamba, courtesy of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In October of 2009, the Walker Basin Restoration Program (WBRP) was established through Public Law 111-85. The primary purpose of the project is to restore and maintain Walker Lake. Similarly to the Klamath River Basin, one of the initiatives within the WBRP is a Water Rights Acquisition Program. The program seeks voluntary water rights sales. A Decision Support Tool (DST) and Landsat imagery are used to help evaluate various scenarios associated with the WBRP. The DST consists of a supply side Precipitation Runoff Modeling System, MODFLOW groundwater model for the demand side, and the MODSIM river basin-management system. During these evaluations, METRIC evapotranspiration estimates based on Landsat imagery are compared to Nevada State Engineer Office evapotranspiration estimates used in the DST. The METRIC evapotranspiration estimates are related to consumptive use for individual fields. Landsat is also being used by the Nevada State Engineer’s Office to look at voluntary water-rights acquisition independently of DST modeling. This information will be available as a second opinion for the project. Landsat imagery was selected for use in this project due to its spatial resolution, thermal band and historical data archive. The thermal band allows the scientists to estimate consumptive use levels within the basin. The relatively high resolution enables consumptive-use estimates to be conducted at the field level, while archived data captures the historical consumptive use on a given plot of land. Additionally, Landsat data is available for use at no cost. No other operating satellite encompasses all of these characteristics, making Landsat unique and most suitable for use in the WBRP (Justin Huntington, Dessert Research Institute, oral commun. and written commun., 2013).
References:
Dr. Justin Huntington, Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute.
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 2012, Walker Basin restoration program: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, accessed July14, 2013, at http://www.nfwf.org/walkerbasin/Pages/home.aspx