The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District is responsible for the management of ground and surface water in the sensitive natural environment of the Monterey Peninsula and Carmel River Watershed. The District uses Tierra Plan’s See Upstream water data portal to inform stakeholders and the public, reduce flooding risk, maintain the health of the river ecosystem, and provide for the region’s water supply needs.
At the mouth of the Carmel River watershed, the river enters the Carmel Lagoon before flowing into the Pacific Ocean. In the summer and fall months, when river flows are low, wave action from the ocean forms a large sand berm that closes off the surface water connection between the lagoon and the ocean. When river flows pick back up during the first few storms of the year, lagoon water levels rapidly rise until they overtake the sand berm and reconnect with the ocean. This water rise event causes flooding of nearby residences.
To avoid this flooding, local agencies preemptively breach the sand berm by digging a channel below the flood elevation. The timing of the breach is crucial, and Tierra Plan’s See Upstream platform gives the District a way to carefully monitor both water levels and upstream river flows at the same time, so they can best determine the critical time to breach the lagoon and avoid residential flooding.
The District monitors Carmel River flows at its Highway 1 stream gage for their Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) water supply project. When river flows surpass the biological needs of the resident threatened Steelhead trout, the District’s permits allow them to divert water from the Carmel River and inject it into the neighboring Seaside Groundwater Basin, where it is stored for later use.
This management allows the District to bank a water supply that becomes a critical source in times of drought. Every day of ASR injection provides the annual water needs for about 25 households. Tierra Plan’s See Upstream platform lets them anticipate precicly when river flows will meet injection thresholds so they can coordinate with their ASR partner and maximize diversions.
We collaborated closely with the District to tailor our See Upstream platform to their unique data-sharing and visualization requirements. The results:
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