OVERVIEW

In 2020, USACE-SPA entered interagency

agreement with USBR.

• Map Habitat Suitability for the Rio Grande

Silvery Minnow at (8) Habitat Restoration

Sites in the San Acacia Reach.

• Develop repeatable methods to quantify

“habitat effectiveness”.

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Photo credit: Jennifer Bachus, USBR 2016

• Agency roles for this project

• State of the science

• Project Scope

• Results (in progress) and Figures

• Summary

• Next steps

Ground rules:

• Questions may be submitted any time via chat;

• Time for discussion at the end.

OUTLINE

ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES3

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Bureau of Reclamation: Restoration Site Owner and Builder, Contracts Data

Collection for the MRG, Funds monitoring of Sites, Holder of this Service

Agreement.

Ashlee Rudolph (Project Manager)

• Coordinates collaboration. Any formal comments and feedback regarding

this effort will be delivered to her.

NM Interstate Stream Commission: Restoration Site Owner and builder,

Funds Monitoring of Sites

GSA and Save Our Bosque Task Force: Sub-contractors collecting and

analyzing monitoring data.

US Army Corps of Engineers: Hydrology and hydraulic analysis.

MAPPING HABITAT SUITABILITY

• Habitat Suitability Index: Describes physical

parameters that define “suitable habitat”.

• For RGSM, the literature provides hydraulic

parameters: depth and velocity.

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Scruton (2002)(telemetric habitat

mapping for

Atlantic salmon)

ASIR (2019)

• Areal Floodplain Inundation has been used as

a proxy for “suitable RGSM habitat”

o “More Water” is better for the minnow.

o Channelization has negatively effected the

minnow.

• However, “More Water” correlates with RGSM

populations only to a point;

• Also, “More Water” is a challenging

management strategy.

COMPLICATING REALITIES

• The Middle Rio Grande transports and

deposits sediment, effecting inundation

patterns on the floodplain and in the

channel.

• There are temporal components to the

system:

o duration, frequency, rate of recession.

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Bauer 2009

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

1-Mar 1-Apr 1-May 1-Jun 1-Jul

Dis

charg

e (

cfs

)

Spring Runoff at Albuquerque, Selected Years

2008 2010 2012

OPPORTUNITIES IN HYDRAULIC & ECOLOGICAL

FUNCTION MODELING • Hydraulic Modeling can provide

information “in between” the monitoring

data collection.

• The resolution of 2-D modeling is

appropriate for mapping “fringe habitat”

and local hydraulics.

• When paired with hydrologic

monitoring:

“More Water” changes to:

o more [low-velocity areas]

o at [discharges more likely to

occur ‘naturally’ in the

system].

• Goals:

o Quantify habitat available at each life

stage of RGSM.

o Determine how habitat changed

following 2019 runoff.

o Integrate in future design analysis.

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2-D Model 1-D Model

USACE (tbp-2020)

Geomorphic

• Sediment transport or deposition.

• Affects conveyance on the floodplain and in the channel.

Water

• Hydrology

• (volume, frequency)

• Hydraulics

• (depths, velocities)

Middle Rio

Grande

Habitat

Restoration Sites

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• Analysis of 2019 hydrograph,

• Average hydrograph from

2000-2019, and

• Overbanking discharges in

the MRG.

• Comparison of topography

from “As-Built” to “Post-

Runoff” in 2019.

PROJECT SCOPE

SCOPE OVERVIEW -- HYDRAULICS8

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Calibrate

1D/2D

Model

Run Various

Discharge

Simulations

Determine

Area of

Suitable

Habitat per

Discharge

USACE (tbp-2020)

• For each of the (8) habitat restoration sites, create an eco-value

curve for As-Built (AB) and 2019 Post-Runoff (PR) Condition

1

10

100

1000

10000

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000

Acre

s

Discharge (cfs)

2-D Area per Discharge, 10-mile Reach in Albuquerque

Surface Area (acres) Total

Velocity (Larvae, Total)

Depth (Larvae, Total)

Combined Velocity and Depth Criteria (Larvae, Total)

SCOPE OVERVIEW -- HYDROLOGY• Eco-Value Curve: relates suitable hydraulic habitat per discharge.

• Habitat Effectiveness: combines the Eco-Value with the actual hydrology.

• System hydrology is important. 2019 was a very high run-off year, relative to the

average. (Figures based on San Acacia gage)

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Pre Spring Post Winter Total

Days

Season

2019

1000 cfs 2000 cfs 3000 cfs 4000 cfs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Pre Spring Post Winter Total

Days

Season

Average 2000-2019

1000 cfs 2000 cfs 3000 cfs 4000 cfs 5000 cfs

PRELIMINARY RESULTS: RESTORATION SITE RM 100.5

• 8.2 acre feature with (2) backwaters.

• 2-D area analyzed is 20 acres.

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As-Built Suitable

Hydraulics for

Juvenile RGSM

Post-Runoff 2019

Suitable HydraulicsAll images for approximately

4000 cfs

RM 100.5: AS-BUILT TO POST-RUNOFF PERFORMANCE11

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Eco-value curves for RM 100.5

• 2000 cfs demonstrates

losses in suitable larval

habitat.

• 3000-4000 cfs generate

more habitat than higher

discharges.

• Post-runoff condition is

found to generate slightly

more habitat (less than

10% change)

RM 100.5: LINK GEOMORPHIC CHANGE TO

PERFORMANCE

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As-Built, Larval

Habitat at 2000 cfs

Post-RunoffPost-Runoff Terrain

RM 100.5: PROJECTING FUTURE PERFORMANCE

• Habitat effectiveness evaluation is a quantity, combining duration and area.

• Such information can be compared to inform alternatives analysis or management

decisions.

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0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

Acr

e-D

ays

Discharge (cfs)

2019 Performance

AB-Larval AB-Juvenile AB-Adult

PR-Larval PR-Juvenile PR-Adult

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

Acr

e-D

ays/

Year

Discharge (cfs)

Average Performance

AB-Larval AB-Juvenile AB-Adult

PR-Larval PR-Juvenile PR-Adult

RM 100.5, FUTURE WORK: VISUALIZING THE

TEMPORAL

Larval Juvenile Adult

Spring

Runoff May to June X X X

Post-Runoff July to October X X

Winter November to February X

Pre-Runoff March to April X

• HEC-EFM will generate “eco-value”

hydrographs using USGS data.

• Provides a performance metric.

• Informs alternative analysis.

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0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1-Oct 1-Nov 1-Dec 1-Jan 1-Feb 1-Mar 1-Apr 1-May 1-Jun 1-Jul 1-Aug 1-Sep

Dis

charg

e (

cfs

)

Ecovalu

e(A

cre

s o

f S

uitable

Are

a)

Axis Title

2019 Habitat Effectiveness for RM 100.5 (As-Built)

Larval Juvenile Adult Discharge

SUMMARY

• The system is complicated.

• Tools exist to evaluate hydraulics and

hydrology on a meaningful spatial

scale.

• How does the effectiveness of

habitat restoration change over

time?

• Solicit feedback based on this

presentation and the preliminary report

on RM 100.5

• Conduct analysis on the remaining (7)

habitat restoration sites.

• Develop more comparisons and insight

on site performance.

• Work with Reclamation to continue

analysis and data collection.

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NEXT STEPS

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

Send feedback/request documents/ask questions

pertaining to this project:

• Ashlee Rudolph: [email protected]

Technical input on your projects:

• Aubrey Harris: [email protected]

Other Work in Progress:

USACE tbp: 1-D v. 2-D and Hydrologic Statistical Sensitivity Analysis for HEC-Ecological

Function Modeling

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Thank you to our partners at NM ISC, GSA and SOBTF.

Credit owed to Jennifer Bachus, Eric Gonzales, Chris Grosso, Mick

Porter, Jonathan AuBuchon and John Hickey for various aspects

of this project.

restoration site hydraulics - usgs

Documents