ABSTRACT:

Formed from 1905-1907, after high flows off the Colorado River breached the Alamo Canal and flooded an ancient dry lakebed, the Salton Sea is now a unique agricultural landscape with 2.36 million residents. However, declining inflows have caused a suite of public and ecological health issues that the State of California is challenged to address. Through scenario-simulations in the Colorado River Simulation System, we explored how irrigation practices and local hydrology affect inflows to the Salton Sea. Sensitivity analysis found that inflows to the Salton Sea were most sensitive to Imperial Irrigation Return flows.

ABSTRACT:

Riparian habitat is a critical component of American southwest ecology. To successfully maintain the ecological integrity of riparian corridors in National Park Service (NPS) units, managers require science-based information quantifying the status and trends of natural resources within riparian areas. This information provides a basis for managers to develop conservation strategies with external partners whose actions impact the ecological integrity of riparian natural resources. As upstream dam operations and water diversions alter the timing and quantity of downstream river flows, park managers specifically require an enhanced understanding of the effect of hydrologic flow on geomorphologic change and vegetation community structure within riparian ecosystems. To contribute to this effort, an exploratory analysis was conducted to integrate hourly water surface elevations (WSE) with digital elevation models (DEMs) at two long-term riparian monitoring locations of the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Division along the Green River within Canyonlands National Park and Dinosaur National Monument. These scripts were developed to visualize inundation period across monitoring sites and within repeat vegetation monitoring plots.

ABSTRACT:

Python script to create an original visualization from USGS National Water Information System data accessed via the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System. By entering an active USGS gage number and date range of interest, this script returns discharge data from the USGS NWIS using the suds-py3 package. Data is then be resampled using the Pandas package, and a unique plot of daily mean, maximum, minimum, and 15-minute discharge data is returned.