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Below
is a list of representative projects that WRIME's principals and staffs
have worked on in a project leadership role during their professional
tenure.
Central
Valley, California
Central
Valley Ground and Surface Water Model (CVGSM)
 The
Central Valley Integrated Ground and Surface Water Model (CVGSM) was
developed based on the IGSM code, to assist in the analysis of various
water management alternatives and their impacts on the surface water and
groundwater resources in the area. It
is a three-dimensional finite element groundwater model that includes
stream aquifer interaction and stream flow simulation.
More
specifically, the CVGSM has the following simulation features:
-
Monthly
rainfall-runoff and recharge simulation
-
Urban
and agricultural land use analysis
-
Water
budget analysis: groundwater budget, land and water use budget,
steamflow budget
-
Agricultural
water use analysis, including estimation of groundwater pumping, and
adjustments to surface water diversion rates
-
Streamflow
routing and stream-aquifer interaction
-
Land
subsidence processes
CVGSM
has been used in a number of studies including the evaluation of
alternatives in the Programmatic EIS for the Central Valley Improvement
Act.
As
project engineers, both Dr. Taghavi and Dr. Najmus have been key staff
members on the CVGSM development team.
They have been involved in the development of the model database
and its calibration. Dr.
Taghavi and Dr. Najmus have been leading numerous IGSM model data updates,
model code upgrades, and model applications, including its linkage to
statewide surface water and planning operations models (such as
Reclamation’s PROSIM and SANJASM) and its application to the analysis of
alternative water management scenarios in the CVPIA PEIS.
Mr. Cornelius was the lead geologist for the CVGSM project and has
participated in the model data development and analysis tasks.
The
American River Water Resources Investigation (ARWRI) involved the
following key tasks: (i)
identifying future water needs, (ii) evaluating groundwater quality, and
(iii) developing a water resources management plan to meet future water
needs. To accomplish these
tasks, the American River Integrated Ground and Surface Water Model (IGSM)
was developed by dynamic integration of three independent ground-surface
water models: the the
North American River model, the Sacramento County model, and
the San Joaquin County model. Each
represents a detailed model of the Central Valley Ground and Surface Water
Model (CVGSM) sub-areas, offering local or site-specific analysis of the
regional model of the Central Valley.
Because the hydrology of the three model areas is closely
connected, linking them together more closely simulates the interactive
nature of the area, increasing the accuracy and predictive reliability of
the models. The models are
linked to the CVGSM for consistency in the regional boundary conditions.
Covering
360 square miles, the combined model forms a powerful tool for evaluation
of conjunctive use and sustainable yield pumping scenarios on a local
scale as part of an overall groundwater management plan for the American
River service area. The
American River model was also used to identify water quality problems, to
predict areas prone to groundwater overdraft and saltwater intrusion, and
to analyze opportunities for groundwater recharge.
Dr.
Taghavi has been the project manager for the development of the North
American River IGSM and its
application to a number of projects.
He has also lead the application of the Sacramento County and North
American River models for the analysis of alternative water management
plans considered by the Water Forum.
Most recently, Dr. Taghavi has lead the calibration of the
Stanislaus Basin IGSM.
Dr.
Najmus has been the project manager for the development of the San Joaquin
County IGSM and its application
to a number of water management and conjunctive use scenarios, for the
EBMUD Mokelumne Aquifer Recharge and Storage Project (MARS) and East San
Joaquin County Joint Conjunctive Use Project.
Most recently, Dr. Najmus has lead the model development task for
the Stanislaus Basin IGSM.
Mr.
Cornelius has been the lead geologist for the above mentioned three
individual model development projects in the American River Basin.
He has also conducted the scenario analyses for the ARWRI and MARS
projects. Mr. Cornelius is
currently managing the Navigant's groundwater analysis task of the
Regional Water Master Plan project for the American River Basin
Cooperating Agencies (ARBCA), which includes water purveyors in Sacramento
County north of the American River and in Placer County.
The three county models are being used to assess impacts of various
conjunctive use scenarios on groundwater conditions.
The
Salinas Valley is an elongated river valley located along the central
California coast. Water
demands for municipalities and about 200,000 acres of irrigated land are
met by groundwater. The
groundwater basin is recharged through stream seepage from the Salinas
River, which runs the entire length of the valley and drains into Monterey
Bay. The Nacimiento and San
Antonio reservoirs are located in the upper watershed and provide flood
control and storage. Releases
from storage are managed to increase groundwater recharge.
Increased water demands have caused an overdraft of the groundwater
basin. The overdraft has
lowered groundwater levels and increased seawater intrusion from Monterey
Bay.
In
order to analyze the past and present state of the groundwater basin, as
well as analyze the impact of future water management scenarios, a
comprehensive hydrologic model was developed based on the Integrated
Ground and Surface Water Model (IGSM).
This comprehensive hydrologic model, the SVIGSM, has the following
simulation features:
-
Daily
and monthly rainfall-runoff and recharge simulation
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Urban
and agricultural Land use analysis
-
Agricultural
water use analysis, including estimation of groundwater pumping
-
Streamflow
routing and stream-aquifer interaction
-
Multi-purpose
reservoir operation
-
Seawater
intrusion
The
model provides detailed monthly and/or annual water budgets for each major
component of the hydrologic cycle simulated along with daily streamflow
and reservoir water budgets.
The
model has had numerous applications since its inception.
These include a study of seawater intrusion alternatives for the
Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project (CSIP), analysis of alternative
water management plans for the Salinas River Basin Management Plan (BMP),
study and design of water supply facilities as part of the Salinas Valley
Water Project (SVWP), study of re-operation of upstream reservoirs, and
Historical Benefits Analysis (HBA) of operation of reservoirs, including
the hydrologic, flood control, and economic benefits.
Pajaro
River Basin, California
 The
Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency was created to address the water
supply conditions in the Pajaro River basin.
Major issues facing the agency are the long-standing overdraft
conditions along with the associated saltwater intrusion and water quality
degradation in the groundwater basin. Groundwater provides more than 95
percent of all water used in the Pajaro Valley.
As
part of the overall effort in developing a Basin Management Plan for the
Agency, historical data were collected, a database management system was
developed, and a finite-element hydrologic model based on IGSM was
developed to simulate the surface and subsurface hydrologic conditions in
the basin, as well as the subsurface movement of chloride in the
groundwater basin.
Chino
Groundwater Basin, Southern California
Chino
Integrated Ground and Surface Water Model (CIGSM)
The
Chino Basin in southern California is a groundwater supply source for more
than 20 water purveyors. The
continuing groundwater quality degradation
in this adjudicated basin prompted a long-term water resources management
study by Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA).
Three major components of this study are (1) development of
analytical tools (e.g. models); (2) development of long-term management
alternatives; and (3) economic analysis.
Dr.
Saquib Najmus lead the first two components of the study which involved
estimation of future water demands and supplies; development and
calibration of an Integrated Groundwater Surface Water Model (IGSM);
evaluation of land use planning data; analysis and evaluation of water
supply and waste water disposal plans of more than 40 water service
agencies with reference to supply and discharge water quality limitations;
identifying alternative water sources (such as internal reuse and
reclamation) and evaluating their impacts; develop alternative management
plans to overcome water quality and water rights judgment deficiencies
observed with the baseline (status quo) plan; formulate and evaluate
conjunctive use and long-term storage programs proposed by the
Metropolitan Water District of southern California.
These tasks were accomplished by developing numerous analytical
tools spanning over wide ranges of formats and platforms: Excel
spreadsheets model; FORTRAN and C language PC and UNIX models. Dr. Najmus
was intimately involved in the data analysis, demand estimation,
analytical models coding, and alternative evaluation in all phases of this
study.
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