­Investigating benefits from additional recharge facilities within the American River Basin

Abstract:

CALVIN is a California, USA statewide hydro-economic model which employs network flow optimization, and integrates hydrology and economics in a single computational platform. Previous studies employed CALVIN compare economic benefits water management alternatives, infrastructure expansion and increased water allocation flexibility. Over the years these have produced a great number of insights for water and resources management in California. This study examined the possible ways to refill drought over pumped aquifers aiming to fulfill the objectives of the 2014 California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). We added recharge facilities to the CALVIN model network near the Folsom Reservoir, to use the concept of flood flows for Managed Aquifer Recharge (Flood-MAR). This study also employs CALSIM-II based simulated hydrology of the American River basin for the period of 1921-2003, and it investigates the water system's behavior after adding recharge facilities under various climate projections. The results show that additional recharge facilities increase hydropower generation, and environmental flows without compromising agricultural production or supply to cities. Further, this study discusses the economic benefit of expanding recharge facilities as well as hydropower revenue and further work.