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RiverEyes Monitoring Program Web Maps

The monitoring effort (referred to as “RiverEyes”) assists with meeting requirements under Reasonable and Prudent Measure 4, and Terms and Conditions 3.2, 9.1, and 9.2 of the December 2016 Final Biological and Conference Opinion for Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and Non-federal Water Management and Maintenance Activities on the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico (2016 BO). When flows fell below key thresholds known to increase flow intermittency risk, field observations were relayed to an interagency water management team and, particularly when flow intermittency occurred, reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to support endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus) rescue and relocation activities.

Mainstem channel drying within the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) has been actively monitored since 1996. The monitoring effort became more formal in 2002 when SS Papadopulos and Associates, Inc., systematically mapped the extent of flow intermittency under contract with New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (NMISC). Since its inception, four entities have been contracted under the RiverEyes program – SS Papadopulos, SWCA, AJAC Enterprises (AJAC), and GeoSystems Analysis, Inc (GSA). Between 2017 and 2020, AJAC subcontracted GSA to manage the RiverEyes effort and beginning in 2021, GSA has worked directly under contract with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Albuquerque Area Office (Reclamation).

The RiverEyes project has numerous important monitoring responsibilities which include reporting the extent of channel drying and remnant pool formation and providing information that may help prevent unexpected drying and slow the rate of drying. Timely and accurate reporting is essential to provide USFWS silvery minnow relocation crews with key information to assist with their field planning and site prioritization and to provide water managers with observations to inform their management decisions.

Data and Resources

Information

Field Value
Contact Name Jonathan Tanis
Contact Email [email protected]
Data Collection Procedures The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains a network of streamflow monitoring stations throughout the MRG that publish real-time, provisional streamflow to the internet (e.g., https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nm/nwis/current/?type=flow). Per the contractual agreement with Reclamation, field reconnaissance within specific high-risk segments of the MRG was conducted when streamflow was below 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) at USGS 08354900 Rio Grande Floodway at San Acacia, New Mexico (NM); below 80 cfs at USGS 08331160 Rio Grande Near Bosque Farms, NM; or below 100 cfs at USGS 08330000 Rio Grande at Albuquerque, NM While RiverEyes encompasses potential monitoring that may occur anywhere between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte Reservoir, channel drying episodes have historically concentrated in two MRG reaches – the Isleta and San Acacia. RiverEyes crews also monitored through the Angostura Reach periodically during 2020, 2021, and 2022, whenever flows at the Albuquerque gage fell below 100 cfs but the Angostura Reach only experienced drying in 2022.
Data Collection Frequency As Needed
Data Publishing Method Webmap, Websites
Data Quality Procedures RiverEyes reports the extent of drying according to the nearest river mile (RM). RMs are segmented from Reclamation’s digitized channel centerline and Reclamation typically produces and circulates a new centerline every 10 years. Since channel morphology changes over time, so do the relative RM locations. We believe that most RiverEyes data are reported according to either the 2002 or 2012 RMs, however, the specific year that the RiverEyes project transitioned from the 2002 to 2012 RMs is not inherently clear. It is also important to note that the precision that the extent of drying was reported has increased over time, as has GPS accuracy. It is also not entirely clear how lat/long or UTM coordinate-based observations were transcribed into RMs during some of the earlier monitoring years. Regardless, all data distributed within this platform are reported according to 2012 RMs, and based on a nearest neighbor analysis, the 2002 and 2012 RMs are typically within +/- 0.2 RMs of each other, particularly within the channel segments traditionally affected by drying. The extent of drying often changes throughout the day, depending on a variety of factors which include evapotranspiration, inflow fluctuations, interactions with groundwater, irrigation diversions and returns, and the distribution of sometimes small but significant in-channel features like scour holes, channel constrictions, and sediment deposition zones. During some years, dried extent was mapped multiple times during the same day. When this occurred, we only ingested the earlies daily observation record, since early morning monitoring has become more customary.
Geographic Location Middle Rio Grande
Data Source SS Papadopulos, SWCA, AJAC Enterprises (AJAC), and GeoSystems Analysis, Inc (GSA)
Last Updated 17 November 2023
Published 17 November 2023