ACEQUIA CONSERVATION

Post-fire flood mitigation strategies

Acequias are the life of agriculture and economy in rural areas of New Mexico. The Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon wildfire damaged a number of acequias in Mora county. Post-fire flooding and soil erosion are current threats to the system. In this project, design strategies are explored to make acequias resilient to the challenges with minimal intervention on existing natural setting. The overall concept is to manage water where it falls and then slow, sink and seep the runoff.

At first, watershed areas are identified to calculate possible runoff intensity and volume. Strategies are proposed at various heights of adjacent mountain to stabilize slope, slow down and filter the runoff water flowing downstream. Native plant species are selected to remediate the detained water, control erosion as well as generate habitat and food source for returning species.