Photo: Steptoe Valley (L. Provencher)
To fill a gap in understanding of groundwater availability and ecosystem response for groundwater-dependent ecosystems, we have a project entitled "Quantifying environmental water requirements for groundwater-dependent ecosystems for resilient water management" that is funded by the US Bureau of Reclamation's WaterSMART Applied Science Program with matching funds from NV Energy Foundation, Desert Research Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and The Nature Conservancy. This 3-year project began in October 2020 and is being led by Dr. Christine Albano at the Desert Research Institute, Dr. Laurel Saito at The Nature Conservancy, and Dr. Steven Loheide at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Please see the attached 2-page brief for more information about the project.
Workshop 2 - June 17, 2024
The second workshop occurred on June 17, 2024 as an in-person workshop with virtual access. In this second workshop, we presented results from our model calibration and validation activities and had a discussion about a proposed framework tool for applying our findings to quantify how groundwater needs of vegetation may vary across the state. We also provided an update on our approach for incorporating model results in state-and-transition simulation modeling of vegetation dynamics. Below are links to materials associated with the workshop. In particular, we encourage people to provide input for the framework tool and how it might be useful by submitting ideas on a survey tool by July 31, 2024.
- Recording of workshop (1 hr 39 minutes; break occurs 49:00-1:01:00)
- Slides from the workshop
- Interactive exercise outcomes about the following questions about a framework tool for GDE water requirements:
- What is important for you to understand about GDE groundwater use?
- What data woudl you like to get out of a framework tool?
- How would you like to use the framework?
- Preferences for framework outputs
- How could this project support your work?
- Survey tool for answering the interactive exercise outcomes and/or providing feedback on the workshop (please provide responses by July 31, 2024)
Workshop 1 - February 23, 2021
We held our first workshop on the project on February 23, 2021 as a virtual workshop to provide an overview of the project, share our preliminary work. We also had some interactions to get input from workshop participants about how we can maximize the value of this project for participants and others in Nevada. Below are links to materials associated with the workshop.
- Recording of workshop (49 minutes)
- Steve Loheide slides about the groundwater subsidy concept
- Christine Albano slides about the approach and research design
- Interactive exercise outcomes about the following questions:
- In what ways does your work involve or intersect with groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs)?
- What aspects of the system/groundwater regime do you think are most important for supporting GDEs and which do you anticipate are/have changed in regional GDEs?
- X-axis(effort) is from unlikely to impact GDEs on left to likely to impact GDEs on right
- Y-axis (impact) is from stable (i.e., GDEs unlikely to change) at bottom to GDEs shifting rapidly at top
- How might this project be helpful to you? What questions do you hope we will be able to answer by the end of this project?
We welcome additional feedback and are still looking for additional datasets. Please contact Christine Albano or Laurel Saito to provide feedback, information about datasets, or would like further information about the project.
Return to groundwater-dependent ecosystems page
