I. GIS DATABASE DEVELOPMENT

This project will develop a geographic information systems (GIS) framework for linking water rights with water distribution networks and points of diversion for the Walker Basin. The resulting GIS database may be used to assess how water and land acquisitions will affect the entire Walker Basin system. The economic component of this project will develop a GIS database of properties, businesses and local demographics in close proximity to the Walker River and its tributaries.

Researchers:

From DRI: Tim Minor, (PI), Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences (DEES); Scott Bassett (PI), DEES; Judith Lancaster (Co-I), DEES; Chris Kratt (Co-I), DEES; and Jeremy Burke (Co-I), DEES
From UNR: Brian Bonnenfant (PI), NSBDC.

Updates

January 2008:

Project personnel continue to collaborate with the Nevada Division of Water Resources to complete quality control of the completed groundwater Place of Use and Point of Diversion data sets.

High resolution LIDAR data for both the lower (obtained from the USGS) and upper reaches (obtained from the USFWS) of the Walker River system have been acquired by Desert Research Institute. These data are being processed and will be shared with UNR scientists.

Currently scrubbing and verifying 2006 taxable sales establishments for Lyon County using new database from Department of Taxation (for specific use by the Center for Regional Studies). The 2007 taxable sales will not be available from the Department of Taxation until March/April 2008.

February 2008:

Project personnel continue to collaborate with the Nevada Division of Water Resources to complete quality control of the completed groundwater Place of Use and Point of Diversion data sets. Mason Valley is complete; Smith Valley approximately 25% checked and verified.

Scrubbed and mapped Lyon County taxable sales data and generated 2006 taxable sales report by industry type (retail and non-retail) for Smith Valley and Mason Valley (Lyon County) using a confidential database from Department of Taxation (for specific use by the Center for Regional Studies). (The 2007 taxable sales will not be available from the Department of Taxation until March/April 2008 (“scrubbing” requires an additional month)).

Generated a report of commercial/industrial zoned v. non-commercial/industrial zoned business establishments to identify on-site versus transient employment totals by industry for Smith Valley and Mason Valley using the second quarter 2007 database provided by Department of Employment, Training, & Rehabilitation.

GIS image

Figure 1. Ditches (in blue) and drains (in red), overlaid on one foot aerial photography acquired in spring 2007 in the lower Mason Valley region.

March 2008:

Personnel continue to collaborate with the Nevada Division of Water Resources to complete quality control of the completed groundwater Place of Use and Point of Diversion data sets. Mason Valley is complete; Smith Valley is nearing completion.

April 2008:

Project personnel continue to collaborate with the Nevada Division of Water Resources to finish quality control of the completed groundwater Place of Use and Point of Diversion data sets. Smith Valley is nearing completion.

Both teams involved in this project worked to complete attributing of the crop types for all Farm Service Agency fields in Mason and Smith Valleys.

Developed maps of field and crop types by individual field for Mason & Smith Valleys. Maps display color-coded field or crop type, acreage, percent of total acres, number of fields, and percent of total fields.

Received 4th quarter 2007 download of taxable sales information by business establishment from Department of Taxation which allows us to begin developing 2007 (calendar year) taxable sales in the Walker Basin (Nevada side only).

May 2008:

Project 1a personnel continue to collaborate with the Nevada Division of Water Resources to complete quality control of the completed groundwater Place of Use and Point of Diversion data sets. Smith Valley is now completed, as are the Points of Diversion in Mason Valley. DRI, in collaboration with the Project 1b team, developed a data layer indicating the source of water (i.e. surface, groundwater, or both) for each of the fields in Mason and Smith Valleys.

June 2008:

Collaboration continued with the Nevada Division of Water Resources to complete quality control of the completed groundwater Place of Use and Point of Diversion data sets. Smith Valley is now completed, as are the Points of Diversion in Mason Valley.

DRI and University teams developed a data layer indicating the source of water (i.e. surface, groundwater, or both) for each of the fields in Mason and Smith Valleys.

The "scrubbing" of 2007 Lyon County taxable sales was completed; and the maps and table of crop types by number of fields, total acreage, value per acre (excluding turf values), total value, and source of water for Mason & Smith Valleys were finalized.

July 2008:

Completed sales allocations by physical location and the mapping of the Mineral County, Mason Valley and Smith Valley 2007 taxable sales. The 2007 taxable sales reports for Mason Valley, Smith Valley and the Hawthorne/Walker Lake/Schurz subregion have been completed.

August 2008:

There are no updates this month.

September 2008:

The water delivery system and Hydrologic Response Unit (HRU) data required for the Water Flow Model development effort was completed and delivered to the modelers in early September, 2008. DRI staff began developing an inventory of water rights priority dates for decree and storage water that will be delivered to the modeling team. Priority dates will be related to Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs) in Mason and Smith Valleys.

Daily diversion data for the 1996-2007 time series continues to be entered into the project GIS system. Data has been entered and passed to the modeling team for the following years: 1996 through 2000, 2005 and 2006.

Tables and figures for the economic and demographic database component of this task have been created and inserted into the final report draft.

October 2008:

DRI personnel from this project and the Water Flow Model project (Tim Minor, Doug Boyle, Greg Pohl and Chris Garner) had a very successful meeting with Steve Fulstone and Ken Spooner of the Walker River Irrigation District (WRID), as well as Jim Shaw, Federal Watermaster, in the WRID Yerington offices. DRI personnel provided an overview of their progress to date on the collection of GIS data and the development of the Decision Support Model. Steve, Ken and Jim provided excellent comments and suggestions concerning the model development and requested that DRI discuss the model with WRID's contracting hydrologist in California. Both Steve and Ken thought there might be some uses of the model that could be beneficial to WRID.

Crop values were reviewed by John Snyder and the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, and adjustments were suggested. As a result, the previous crop value results will be revised.

November 2008:

DRI personnel received one more year of daily diversion data (2003) from the Federal Water Master's office that will allow the modeling group to have an 11-year continuous record of daily diversion data from 1996 to 2006. This time series of data will provide enough variability in precipitation (dry vs. wet years) to both calibrate the model and validate model results. At the end of November, the Water Master's office was nearing completion of the final year (2004) of daily diversion data.

Revisions to the crop values were made upon receiving additional feedback from John Snyder and the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources. As a result, the previous crop values reported for Smith and Mason Valleys have been adjusted to reflect the new information.

Coming up