Development of a condensed model for managing of a particular river/reservoir system based on Texas Water Availability Model (WAM) dataset

Abstract

The Texas Water Availability Model (WAM) System datasets for the larger river basins of the state contain numerous water rights, reservoir, and control points. These voluminous datasets are necessary to support administration of the water rights permit system by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the planning studies conducted by Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and regional planning groups. The datasets are necessarily large to serve the original purposes for which the WAM System was developed. However, the modeling system is being applied for a growing range of applications. Simpler datasets are advantageous for certain types of applications. For example, a model may be formulated that focuses on a particular reservoir system and associated water users. A methodology is presented here for reducing the number of control points, water rights, and reservoirs in a WAM dataset and thus creating a much easier-to-apply condensed dataset focused on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Brazos River Authority (BRA) reservoir system and associated water rights that have only 48 control points and 14 reservoirs. Selected water rights, control points, and reservoirs are removed with their effects retained in the adopted stream inflow input data.