Hydrosphere Resource Consultants

Projects by Discipline / Water Resources Planning and Management

Lower Colorado River Authority (Texas)
River Basin Planning and Water Rights Modeling

  In 2003, Hydrosphere was retained by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) to design, implement and test new simulation models of the LCRA river and reservoir system. LCRA has its own in-house model (RESPONSE), and also uses the Texas Water Development Board’s Water Allocation Model (WAM) model to evaluate water rights yields and permitting issues in the basin. LCRA sought a modeling tool that would enhance the capabilities of RESPONSE and WAM by providing both daily and monthly timestep simulations throughout the entire model domain. The client also required a more robust means of modifying and evaluating management policy options.

Hydrosphere developed a monthly timestep RiverWare model to enhance the planning and water rights modeling tools currently in use. The model simulates priority administration of water rights in the Lower Colorado River basin, including run-of-river irrigation rights, M&I rights, and storage rights in the Highland Lakes as well as lakes Ivie and Brownwood upstream. 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 deliveries to a variety of water users including:

  • Municipal and industrial entities
  • Irrigation districts
  • Cooling water for coal and nuclear power plants
  • Instream flow and environmental flow targets in the river and Matagorda Bay


Because of the flexibility of the RiverWare modeling environment, new model components - such as off-channel reservoirs, new water rights or contracts, or trans-basin imports and exports - and their operational policies, can be added and evaluated very efficiently. RiverWare’s policy tools and its user-friendly interface make it a valuable instrument for communicating with policy makers and other stakeholders in the basin. The model is currently being modified for use in specific project planning studies and will be used for revision of the LCRA Water Management Plan.