The Challenge

The Walker Basin Conservancy (Conservancy) is leading the effort to restore and maintain Walker Lake while protecting agricultural, environmental, and recreational interests throughout the Walker Basin. The Conservancy is responsible for the implementation of the Walker Basin Restoration Program (Program), previously administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. To restore Walker Lake, the Conservancy works with willing sellers in the basin to acquire water rights and convey this water to Walker Lake. The water acquired under the Program is referred to as Program Water and is tracked from the locations where water was acquired through the system to Walker Lake. Stakeholders in the basin need a real-time water supply visualization tool to help address competing water use for agricultural irrigation and environmental restoration in the Walker River Basin. Program Water is tracked through two accounting systems: the Walker River Accounting Tool (WRAT) and the Lower Walker River Conveyance Protocol (LWRCP) tool. The LWRCP needs to be automated so that the LWRCP website is updated daily.

Our Solution

In Phase 1, IHDS developers created a web-based tool that creates a common operating picture for water users:

• Design an interactive map showing near-real-time USGS data for streamflow stage, discharge, and water quality.
• Visualize stage and volume capacity for multiple in- and off-stream reservoirs.
• Develop web pages for the 4 main lakes and reservoirs including stage and storage data, descriptive information, and totals dissolved solids concentration data.

In Phase 2, IHDS developers needed to automate the calculation of program water:

• Ingest data from the USGS NWIS database and from the Walker River Irrigation District website.
• Perform all calculations defined in the LWRCP tool.
• Push data to the existing conveyance database.
• Recalculate data daily to account for changes to data or allocations.
• Update the LWRCP website daily with all values from the LWRCP automated tool.