The western states water council (wswc) mission is to ensure that the west has an adequate, secure, and sustainable supply of water of suitable quality to meet its diverse economic and environmental…

The Western States Water Council (WSWC) was awarded a $914,401 Project Grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Applied Science Grants program (CFDA 15.557) to develop a web-based water conservation tool. This tool will integrate the WESTDAAT system with the OPENET platform to streamline applications for voluntary, compensated water conservation measures across the western United States. The project aims to address data gaps that have hindered effective water conservation and marketing efforts in the region. By integrating these systems, the tool will support and facilitate state water rights administration, enhance water budgeting, promote in-state water marketing, improve drought management, and enhance environmental streamflow. The grant period runs from September 2024 through June 2026.

The western states water council (wswc) mission is to ensure that the west has an adequate, secure, and sustainable supply of water of suitable quality to meet its diverse economic and environmental needs now and in the future. In collaboration with the open access evapotranspiration (openet) team, the upper colorado river commission (ucrc), states, and others, the wswc, will develop a web-based water conservation tool (tool) for west-wide use that streamlines applications for voluntary compensated water conservation measures. The western U.S. Needs to adapt its increased water use to reduced supplies through adaptive strategies such as water conservation and marketing, but there are data gaps that make these efforts difficult to accomplish effectively. Integrating westdaat with openet will support and streamline voluntary, temporary, in-state conservation applications and related compensation, promoting water conservation and efficiency, facilitating state water rights administration, enhancing water budgeting, stretching scarce water supplies, promoting in-state water marketing, improving drought management, and enhancing environmental streamflow.