Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

Fall 2024

Abstract

Sustainable water management is a challenging issue facing most of the western United States. This study analyzed evapotranspiration predictions at 14 sites along the Middle Rio Grande, changes have occurred over time as these vegetated sand bar islands have developed. Additionally, this study examines the methods of predictions and analysis of evapotranspiration or ET rates along the river using OpenET. An added area of research is the understanding of the presence of vegetation on the sandbar islands. This was analyzed using satellite imaging data from OpenET, which was used to see how changes in vegetation density change ET values seen through satellite data. Historically, vegetated islands and vegetation was removed from rivers and their banks. This was to reduce evapotranspiration by controlling water flow and allowance of water passage without obstruction. The thinking was this would leave more water in the river. OpenET data was used to evaluate and compare evapotranspiration rates over time between vegetated islands by analysis of multiple sites along a 10-mile reach of the Rio Grande in the Albuquerque area. This paper examined whether increasing vegetation in the vegetated islands in the Middle Rio Grande led to changes in ET and NDVI levels over 14 site areas. The data proved to be inconclusive, this is seen when looking at values from the controls sites which showed incorrect data, in part due to the models themselves used through OpenET, as well as the sites being too small and in too close proximity to the river bed and open river.

Keywords

OpenET, evaporation, transpiration, evapotranspiration, satellite data, climate models, New Mexico, Albuquerque

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