Western Water Use Management Modeling— A Decision Support Tool for the Southern Nebraska Panhandle

The Western Water Use Management Modeling is a cooperative effort between the North Platte Natural Resources District (NRD), South Platte NRD, and Nebraska Department of Natural Resources to create a robust modeling tool for water resource management decisions. The NRDs are local government entities and are responsible for regulating and managing groundwater pumping. The model extends from the Wyoming-Nebraska border in the west to Ogallala, Nebraska in the east and from Alliance, Nebraska (in the middle of the Nebraska Panhandle) in the north to the Nebraska-Colorado border in the south. The primary surface water bodies within the model are the North Platte River, South Platte River, and Lodgepole Creek. The primary groundwater aquifers are the alluvial and High Plains aquifer systems. The modeling consists of a surface water operations model of the North Platte River system that provides a portion of the estimated pumping, canal operations and recharge, and river operations; a regionalized soil water balance model to estimate crop consumptive use, groundwater pumping, and recharge; and a groundwater model to provide storage amounts and movement of water through the alluvial and High Plains aquifers. The three models are partially integrated and share datasets, with each model providing outputs and feedback for use in calibration. Extensive climate, land use, hydrologic, hydrogeologic, and metered agricultural, municipal, and industrial pumping information was utilized to create models that simulate hydrologic and hydrogeological conditions from 1953 through 2013. These models are being utilized by the NRDs for day to day operations and regional to subregional management decisions. Recent studies have included aquifer life analyses of the High Plains Aquifer and well depletion quantification to rivers and streams.