Projected water deficits mean that land and water managers must be proactive in their management of rivers and shallow aquifers, if they want to maintain the ecosystems dependent upon them. To do this, managers and decision makers need easy access to the best techniques available for determining how much water ecosystems need. This project will result in a Desert LCC-wide database of environmental flow needs and responses (environmental water demands) to help water and land managers make management decisions. This project will identify critical data gaps in flow need and flow response data in the Desert LCC (especially related to baseflow dependent streams) and result in a user-friendly, one-stop-shop for managers and researchers on existing data on flow needs and responses in the Desert LCC. The geo-spatial database of environmental water demands for riparian and aquatic species and ecosystem flow needs and responses will aid managers in identifying areas and species where more data are needed and additional studies and research should be conducted. This database will build upon the existing Arizona Environmental Water Demands Database created by the Water Resources Research Center, which was originally compiled to determine the state of the knowledge in Arizona for environmental flow needs and the responses of riparian and aquatic ecosystems to flow alteration.
