SOCORRO, N.M. – The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources recently started work on a project aimed at making water data more accessible and usable for researchers and decision-makers. The two-year U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cooperative grant combined with state money will use $391,000 to fund improvements to the water data that the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and other agencies use for modeling along the Rio Grande.

According to Stacy Timmons, associate director of hydrology programs at the Bureau and implementation lead for the New Mexico Water Data Act, current practices in New Mexico that relate to water management and modeling are in need of modernization.

“It’s time for an upgrade,” she said. “The idea is to identify some of the key state and local datasets that can improve modeling efforts along the Rio Grande and then build standardized applications that will make the water data more accessible.”

Timmons said she and her staff will first identify the major modeling efforts along the Rio Grande that are used for water management. Then they will figure out which data sets are the most used, which are problematic, and which need to be made more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

The interest in and need for better water data management is even more important with the ongoing drought and other effects of climate change. Increasing temperatures and aridity impact people, plants, animals, and the amount of water they need. Planners can make quicker decisions about water sources, backup plans, and usage with better data, Timmons said.

“The idea with having more accessible, findable data is that we can perhaps anticipate a little bit better,” she said. “We can come up with resiliency plans.”

At the project’s end in December 2024, Timmons said she expects training opportunities to be available for people who do modeling to use the new data sources. This is the Bureau’s second WaterSMART grant.