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CADSWES Research Center Assists Colorado River Negotiations Researchers in the Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) were elated in February when the seven Colorado River states finally reached an agreement on a recommendation for managing the river under drought conditions. CADSWES developed and supports RiverWare, the modeling tool that played a key role in the long and difficult negotiation. "This is a great example of the kind of water management activity that RiverWare is intended to support," says CADSWES Director Edie Zagona. "RiverWare empowers stakeholders such as the Colorado Basin states to develop and evaluate operational plans that previously could only be modeled by the water management agencies." The Bureau of Reclamation, one of CADSWES' largest research sponsors, used RiverWare to build a computer simulation model of the Colorado River. The model was used to evaluate the effects of various operational strategies on the water supply to the seven states and Mexico during a range of hydrologic scenarios, including extreme droughts. The bureau also used RiverWare to provide technical modeling support to the Basin States Technical Modeling Work Group Committee over the past 18 months, as certain interested states and water districts made their own model runs with the software, provided by CADSWES through the CU Office of Technology Transfer. "The Basin States discussions over the past 18 months were truly informed discussions all the way up through the final hours of negotiation," says Carly Jerla, who developed a special version of the model as part of her graduate research on new drought management strategies for the basin. "Our ability to quickly produce various model runs to inform their discussions kept the process moving forward on the technical front." In addition to the Bureau of Reclamation, RiverWare research and development at CADSWES is supported by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers. RiverWare is used by more than 75 agencies, consultants, universities and research institutes and plays a key role in the management of several basins, including the Rio Grande, Pecos, Tennessee, Truckee-Carson, and Yakima Rivers. |
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