White Paper 2: Water Resource Modeling Of The Colorado River: Present And Future Strategies

Now available, a new white paper from the Center for Colorado River Studies on Water Resource Modeling of the Colorado River by Kevin Wheeler, Jack Schmidt and David Rosenberg. This white paper is the first of a series of papers to be produced  by the Future of the Colorado River Project that explore alternative management strategies for the Colorado River that might provide benefit to water-supply users and to river ecosystems.

The CRSS is an important water-policy planning tool that has been used by the Bureau of Reclamation and other stakeholders in numerous major efforts such as negotiation of the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the 2012 Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, and the 2015 Glen Canyon Dam Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan. Given the complexity of the CRSS, experts and stakeholders must invest significant resources to explore alternative paradigms to manage water supply in the Colorado River system, such as alternative strategies that might enhance water supply reliability and/or river ecosystem health.