Opportunities for Restoring Environmental Flows in the Rio Grande–Rio Bravo Basin Spanning the US–Mexico Border

This paper explores how to restore environmental water flows in the Rio Grande‚ÄìRio Bravo basin, a river system that spans 1900 miles from Colorado to Texas, and has been heavily altered over the past century, primarily for agricultural irrigation. Despite these changes, the river still supports critical ecosystems and endangered species. The authors, including WWF's Enrique Prunes, developed the first full-basin hydrologic model for the region to assess how much water is needed to restore ecological flows and how those needs could be met. They found that by reducing irrigation through crop shifting and fallowing‚ – without reducing farmers‚' net income‚ – it is possible to restore key low-flow conditions in parts of the river, such as near Albuquerque, New Mexico. This approach offers a promising path to balance agricultural needs with ecological restoration in a water-scarce region.