学术报告

 Water Resources Management in the New Mexico-Texas-Mexico Border Region

报告人：ALI MIRCHI, Ph.D.（德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校）

报告题目：Water Resources Management in the New Mexico-Texas-Mexico

Border Region

报告时间：2017年8月5日（周六）9：00

报告地点：能源与动力大楼919室

主办单位：水利工程学院水电与水信息研究所

Abstract

The Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) in the New Mexico-Texas-Mexico border region has a complex interlinked water and land management system established to support irrigated agriculture in an arid and semi-arid climate. Due to chronic water scarcity and over-allocation, the region is prone to water resources management conflicts in the face of declining upstream snowpack, growing evapotranspiration, and increasing upstream-downstream competition triggered by rising downstream urban and agricultural water demand. Surface water allotments to New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico are stipulated by the Rio Grande Compact of 1938. With limited water supplies since 2008, thousands of New Mexico farmers who, in a full supply year, can receive 3 acre-feet of water per acre of land have faced shorter irrigation seasons with severe water shortage, forcing them to increase groundwater withdrawal to mitigate economic losses. This presentation provides an overview of water resources management strategies in the city of El Paso, Texas. It also reports on application of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to investigate how changing water and land management practices may alter watershed scale water availability in EBID. The model is calibrated and validated under baseline conditions and then used to quantify the effectiveness and potential impacts of reducing agricultural water withdrawal, and changing cropping pattern as adaptation measures to cope with the ongoing changes and address imminent conflicts. 

  Biography

Dr. Ali Mirchi is a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering and Center for Environmental Resource Management at the University of Texas at El Paso. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University, U.S.A., a Master’s in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University, Sweden, and a B.S. in Civil/Water Engineering from the University of Tabriz, Iran. Dr. Mirchi’s work primarily focuses on the application of systems thinking, systems analysis techniques, simulation, and optimization modeling to advance understanding of water resources and environmental management problems at different scales, informing resource management frameworks and policies that promote sustainability.