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Project Description
In response to Senate Bill 1, adopted by the 1997 Texas Legislature, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) initiated the Water Availability Modeling (WAM) Project. The project's goal is to develop the statewide Texas Water Availability Modeling System, which will serve as a new decision support system for administering the state's surface water rights permitting program. In January 1998, the TNRCC selected Parsons to serve as their technical program manager. The major components of the system include:
- A database for all existing surface water rights, water use, stream flows, and other data
- GIS tools to analyze stream flows and display the results graphically
- A water availability model to be applied to 22 of the state's 23 river basins
- Program management and complete documentation of the program
The WAM project is scheduled for completion over a four-year period. During that time, the new WAM system will be developed and each river basin will be modeled to produce select data regarding available water. To effectively manage a project of this size and complexity, project organization was developed that provides effective coordination and communication at three levels:
- Inter-agency coordination and communication through the WAM project management team
- Stakeholder input through a workgroup of water use interests
- Communication with regional planning groups
Parsons manages the implementation of key tasks to insure adherence to the project's technical requirements and schedule. Parsons responsibility falls into five categories:
- Project management
- Technical consultant
- Project representative
- GUI developer
- Database revisions
In addition, Parsons conducted a study of potential surface water/groundwater interactions. The study utilized GIS technology to identify, characterize, and rank stream segments in the state of Texas where the potential for interaction between the surface water resources and the underlying groundwater is high. Parsons also prepared a document that presents a detailed cost estimate for development of the 22 river basins models. The document also includes detailed discussion and presentation of the large volume of background information upon which the cost evaluation was based.
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