Conceptual Models

 Conceptual models are needed to help us better

visualize, plan, monitor, and manage hydrologically
interconnected water resources and their associated
data/information.
 IWRM conceptual models should be designed to help
stimulate decision makers, managers, researchers, and
water users to better understand, manage and govern
our water resources in a more holistic, systematic, and
integrated manner.
 Such models need to include all pertinent basin-specific
hydrologic cycle information, the factors that can impact
the cycle, the full suite of human and environmental
needs, activities and impacts, and their interrelationships.
Generalized Process for Developing
Conceptual Models
Review Available
Data/Information
Assess Area Note Data/
of Interest Information Gaps
Developing a
Collect New Formulate
Data/Information Conceptual Model Questions

Learn from Evaluate Water User

Stakeholders Competition/Cooperation
Compile Anthropogenic/
Environmental Needs
Integrated Water Resources Management
Conceptual Models
IWRM conceptual models are developed
in a similar manner, except they should:
 Be broader in nature and more integrative
 Integrate our existing knowledge of the hydrologic,
physical, social, economic, legal, and environmental
aspects and issues within the area of interest more
fully than historical management approaches
 Be designed and programs implemented within
“competent hydrologic units” (e.g., a basin)
 Competent Hydrologic Units
Agenda 21 states:
 “Integrated water resources management, including the
integration of land- and water-related aspects, should be
carried out at the level of the catchment, basin or sub-
basin” (18.9)
Ideally, IWRM should be conducted in
“competent hydrologic units,” defined here as:
 “The full geographic extent of a hydrologically-
distinct surface water unit and its hydrologically-
distinct and interconnected groundwater unit, within
a specified geographic area of interest”
 Competent Hydrologic Units -
Upper Snake River Basin, Idaho
Table _. Examples of Potential Conjunctive Management Basins in USRB, Idaho.

Aquifer Aquifer/Conjunctive
# Management Unit Name HUC Hydrologic Unit Name
37 Camas Prairie 17040220 Camas
38 Big Wood River - Silver 17040219 Big Wood
Creek
39 Snake Plain 17040201 Idaho Falls
17040202 Upper Henrys
17040203 Lower Henrys
17040204 Teton
17040206 American Falls
17040207 Blackfoot
17040209 Lake Walcott
17040212 Upper Snake - Rock
17040214 Beaver - Camas
17040215 Medicine Lodge
17040216 Birch
17040217 Little Lost
17040218 Big Lost
17040219 Big Wood
17040221 Little Wood
40 Salmon Falls Creek - Rock 17040212 Upper Snake - Rock
Creek 17040213 Salmon Falls
17050101 C.J Strike Reservoir
17050102 Bruneau
41 Goose Creek - Golden 17040209 Lake Walcott
Valley 17040211 Goose
17040212 Upper Snake - Rock
42 Marsh Valley 17040209 Lake Walcott
43 Raft River Valley 17040209 Lake Walcott
Integrate Hydrology,
Policies & Laws
Competent Hydrologic Unit(s)
Big Lost River
IWRM Conceptual Model
Basin Inputs and Outputs
Generalized Storage and Flow Through
Competent Hydrologic Units
Physical Constraints
Socioeconomic, Legal and
Environmental Constraints
Water Acquisition and Use
IWRM Conceptual Model
Bear River Basin Systems Dynamic
Conceptual Model

Sehlke, G. and J.J. Jacobson, (2005). System Dynamics Modeling of Transboundary Systems: the
Bear River Basin Model. Ground Water: Theme Issue, Transboundary Ground Water; Volume 43,
Number 5, pp 645 - 764. National Ground Water Association, Westerville, OH
Water Availability, Use and Cost in
the Western United States

Tidwell, et al, 2014. Mapping Water Availability, Projected Use and

Cost in the Western United States, Environmental Research Letters,
Vol. 9, No. 6, June 2014.
 Summary
 The overall goal of IWRM is to improve our understanding,
management and governance of water resources by
implementing a more holistic, systematic, and integrated
system than historical management approaches
 We need to design conceptual models that help us better
visualize, plan, and monitor our resources and those
issues/activities that affect them or are affected by them
 We need to capture, display and link all the significant “pieces
and parts” of a water-management puzzle together in one place
to ground a shared understanding of hydrologically
interconnected water resources
 By doing so we can better frame our knowledge, better
contemplate the whole integrated picture, and thereby improve
management
and governance within “competent hydrologic units” of interest