Evaluation of Decision Support System Platforms and Tools for Integrated Water Management in the Colorado River Basin

The project will result in recommendations for a decision support platform that links coarse and fine scale tools and for improving the Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS) as the central analytical tool for basinwide water supply planning. The work will largely be accomplished by assembling an exceptionally qualified team in cross-disciplinary, water management decision support systems, in the CRSS, and in two finer scale water management decision supports within the basin and by responding to an advisory group oflead water management agencies.

The project will immediately build on the Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study being led by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will extend the interface between basin-wide water management and both the Southern Rockies and the Desert Landscape Cooperative, and should enable greater utilization of the change projections and all other water budgeting developed for the Basin Study. Further, the improved decision support for basin-wide water management will provide a framework for connecting and synthesizing many of the water related projects already undertaken by these cooperatives and especially those projects seeking to quantify flow needs at different scales.