Synthesizing Environmental Flow Needs Data for Water Management in a Water‐Scarce State: The Arizona Environmental Water Demands Database

Abstract

Water rights for environmental flows are not universal, and oftentimes, legal tools used to incorporate the environment into water management only require new users to consider their impact. It can be difficult to include the needs of riparian and aquatic ecosystems in new plans when relevant information is not always available, especially when other existing uses already outstrip available supplies. There is a need for easily accessible and understandable science on the water requirements for riparian and aquatic species, so managers can make informed decisions about whether or not to include riparian and aquatic species in their community's water management future. In this paper, we describe the current understanding of the link between hydrology and Arizona's riparian and aquatic ecosystems through the creation of a geospatial Environmental Water Demands database that can be used to determine the water needs to maintain habitat. Analysis of 121 studies reveals that there are very few analyses of the surface water and groundwater requirements for intermittent or ephemeral river systems, and there are only limited generalizable data for aquatic species. Except for a few species, such as Cottonwood (Populous fremontii) and Willow (Salix gooddingii), few data are available on the flow requirements for vegetation. The Environmental Water Demands database can be used to identify critical geographic and topical knowledge gaps where further research is needed, as well as serve as a single place for water and land managers to assess and use the most currently available information to make more informed management decisions and recommendations.

Explore, Synthesize, and Repeat: Unraveling Complex Water Management Issues through the Stakeholder Engagement Wheel

“…The Arizona Environmental Water Needs Assessment and Methodology Guidebook summarized the results of this analysis. In addition, a database was created as a tool for land and water managers to identify available information on riparian and aquatic species flow needs [30]. The second phase of the project (January 2011-January 2012) focused on disseminating results from the environmental water needs assessment and preparing for the engagement process in phase three.…”

Building Common Ground for Environmental Flows using Traditional Techniques and Novel Engagement Approaches

“…The majority (54 %) of streams in Arizona are ephemeral (flowing only in response to storm events), 26 % are intermittent (flowing for less than 95 % of flow record), and 20 % are perennial (flowing more than 95 % of the flow record) (Mott Lacroix et al 2014a). Flows that do exist are important because 80 % of all vertebrate species in Arizona spend some portion of their life cycle in riparian (stream side) areas (Zaimes 2007).…”

A comparison of Zayandehrood River water values for agriculture and the environment

“…Forecasted and existing rise in global water demand caused a complicated conflict among the development of rivers for water and energy usages, and their ecosystem services. A decent amount of studies, such as Mott Lacroix et al (2016) and Swirepik et al (2016), have been done to assess the needs of rivers for their own water, to analyse the trade‐offs in water allocation across all uses. The issue is extremely tough in river basins since they are open systems with changing physical structure over many geographical and temporal scales (Tharme, 2003).…”