SIRG Grant Project:Enabling Continental Scale Water Resources Management: Adding Value to State and Federal Agency Large Heterogeneous Data Sets

Faculty Advisors:Loring Nies, School of Civil Engineering

Chad Jafvert, School of Civil EngineeringSi Luo, Department of Computer Sciences

Julia Wiener, ESE Student

ProblemWhat is the river´s water use rate?When you withdraw water downstream, was it

previously used upstream? If so, how much are we reusing the water of the rivers? How many times?

What would this imply in terms of inter-jurisdiction regulation/ collaboration/ ?

Study case: Mississippi River

Mississippi River WatershedLargest in continental USCovers all or parts of 28 US StatesNational importance:

In food productionDrinking Water sourceRecreational sourceTransportationEnergy (e.g. cooling)ManufacturingEcosystem Services… Source: Wikimedia Commons

Preliminary research – Small BasinHUC 05120201: Upper White Watershed

White River flows through the City of IndianapolisFeeds the Morse ReservoirSupplies more than 1/3

Indianapolis drinking water

An estimated 891,000 people live in Marion County (2010)

Source: USGS

MethodologyAsses water reuse by:

Determining volume of water input into streams and river water bodies that occurs through facility discharges. Includes all NPDES permitted facilities.

Determining the volume of water extracted from lotic sources. Include all drinking water plants and industries that use surface water.

Evaluate the relationship between discharges-withdrawals and surface waters stream flow.

Work at different HUC LevelsTake USGS Gauging station stream flow measures as reference

Developing the Initial Data Set HUC 05120201 - Upper White WatershedWatershed Discharges: NPDES FacilitiesFlow in conduit Average

Watershed Withdrawals: Significant Water Withdrawal Facilities (IDNR)Intake Sources

Watershed “Balance” Point: Most downstream USGS Gauging Station03354000 Located in Morgan Co. Source: IndianaMap

JanFe

bM

arApr

May

Jun JulAug

Sep

Oct NovDec

Discharg

es - AVE

With

drawals

Balance = D

- W0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

4291 4509

7056

4789

3532 3669

1760

945573 542 652

2613

1253

309944

HUC 05120201 - Upper White WatershedUSGS 0335400 - White River near Centerton: Stream Flows - Geometric

Mean/monthAll Facilities Mean Discharge rates 2007-2009

Significant Water Withdrawals Facilities – Mean 2006-2008

ft3/day

Results

SignificanceFor low flow months all of the stream flow downstream of

Indianapolis is “used” waterThis water has passed through some type of wastewater

treatment facilityThis is called “Unplanned indirect potable water reuse”From December through July the fraction of “used” water

ranges between 13 – 54%There are unaccounted for withdrawals (infiltration?) and

discharges (urban & agriculture run-off).May lead to a radical change in the reuse-concept perception.

Issues to ManageMassive amount of water data collected and archived

continuouslyLittle coordination, integration or organization of the

heterogeneous data sets There is a need to enable a wider and more research-

oriented access to large-scale water resources data

DatabasesDataECHODNR (Withdrawals – Indiana)USGSGIS dataNHD Plus -> Provides some integration but in GIS formatEPA GIS Water data