Wetlands and Dams

Motivating Question: Where shall we site wetlands and how can we co-operate dams with strategically sited wetlands to game climate extremes and improve flood control and water storage?

We propose wetlands as a key component of NABWI within the EWN toolkit. Wetlands create storage and hence defense against floods and water insecurity. Above these wetlands provide additional services such as improving water quality, supporting aquatic ecosystems, and securing low flows during dry periods. But we are losing wetlands to climate change, land use change, population growth, and urbanization. Scientific estimates show 64% of wetlands have disappeared since 1900 AD (www.ramsar.org). Based on more than 1000 global sample sites, Ramsar convention estimated an average 40% reduction in wetland area between 1970 and 2008. In the Conterminous US, 62300 acres of wetland was lost between 2004 and 2009 (Dahl 2011). A new notion is evolving to restore natural infrastructures as a solution to  address water challenges (discussed by CEO of the WRI in The World Bank 2019; Palmer et al. 2015). But still the major science gap is how to plan natural infrastructure so as to maximize its impact (based on a statement by Dr. Bruno Oberle, Director General of IUCN assessed on www.globalebafund.org). We propose here to site wetland so as to maximize benefit from dam operations on flood control and improving low flows. For this, we integrate science (models), data, and data analytics (data-based models, optimization, and visualization) building a case for the Brazos basin in Texas.