Modeling for Integrated Water Management on the High Plains

Application of groundwater to agricultural fields has induced changes to the surface water system due to the highly connected nature of surface water and groundwater. A better understanding of the interaction between groundwater systems and various sources and sinks is of key importance for effective management of water resources, which have paved a way for the concepts of modeling a complete integrated system. Nebraska is applying a concept/technique of combining different surface and subsurface models where interactions and iterations between these models takes place for understanding and overviewing the current situation of water resources from a broader perspective. Three different models—groundwater model, watershed model, and surface water operations model are used and integrated with each other. This talk explores the mechanics of models construction and the challenges of joint calibration of several models.