Transboundary Allocation of River Flows and Reservoir Storage in Texas and Associated Water Availability Modeling

Abstract

There are around 280 transboundary river basins in the world, most of which do not have a proper mechanism for the fair usage of the shared river water, paving the way for potential conflicts between nations and their states. Climate change has been adding further stress to these systems, with effects such as the drying of the rivers and aberrant trends in streamflow. Texas is an excellent laboratory to study the transboundary nature of water in having water-sharing compacts with five neighboring states in the United States and one international treaty with Mexico for the Rio Grande River. Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) is a generalized simulation modeling system used for priority-based water allocation for existing water users and allocating the available water for prospective users. Supply reliabilities, flow and storage frequency, and other analyses of simulation results help in decision-making for the allocation of water. This work aims to study the existing transboundary water management in Texas and the application of WRAP modeling for its water allocation. Further, the study can help to understand the application of WRAP simulation for transboundary water allocation in other parts of the world. Keywords: Trans-boundary River, Rio Grande River, WRAP, Water allocation, Supply Reliability