Featured Projects
San Pedro Wildfire Hazard Assessment and Mitigation Plan (Arizona)
Hydrosphere was hired by the Bureau of Land Management to evaluate the potential for wildfire on lands adjacent to the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and to recommend actions that could reduce the risk for loss of life, property, structures, and other valued resources. The conservation area is the primary migration stopover and winter habitat for millions of birds in the desert Southwest. Our services on this project included:
- Wildfire Hazard Assessment
- Mitigation Planning
- Mitigation Recommendations for Individual Homes
- Derivation of Hazard Maps using GIS
- Public Information Campaign
- Public Meeting Leadership
Mitigation plans were developed for six communities and three rural areas adjacent to the conservation area, encompassing 173 square miles. Read more
Vail Golf Course Diversion Structure (Colorado)
Hydrosphere was retained by the Eagle River Water & Sanitation District and the Vail Recreation District to assess the system of ponds and irrigation water delivery on the Vail Municipal Golf Course, and to design a new structure and other system improvements for the diversion and headworks. Hydrosphere's role in the project included:
- Evaluation
- Design
- Construction cost estimation
- Preparation of bid documents
- Construction oversight
We designed the new structure to have the appearance of a natural drop in the river, constructed of natural rock. Read more
Denver Basin Regional Groundwater Model, South Metro Water Supply Study (Colorado)
A consortium of private water utilities and public water providers hired Hydrosphere in 2003 to develop a linked surface water-groundwater model. The investigation is providing a better understanding of the capability of the Denver Basin aquifers to supply long-term future water demands.
Our work on this project emphasizes a scalable modeling effort, in which output from a surface water supply model determines long-term demand requirements from bedrock aquifers. Large-scale conditions in the aquifers are simulated using a regional groundwater model that then interfaces with local groundwater models around individual well fields. Read more
Lower Colorado River Authority River Basin Planning and Water Rights Modeling (Texas)
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) hired Hydrosphere in 2003 to design, implement and test a new RiverWare model of the LCRA river and reservoir system. The model simulates priority administration of water rights in the Lower Colorado River basin. The model also provides an accounting mechanism for tracking the allocation of water from source to water user. These accounts allow LCRA to evaluate the timing and magnitude of water deliveries from numerous sources. RiverWare enhances the capabilities of LRCA's earlier planning tools by providing daily time step model simulations throughout the entire model domain, and by providing a more robust means of modifying and evaluating management policy.