Center Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems

This project will provide analysis tools for supporting flexible reservoir operations to address hydrologic conditions including droughts and floods to ensure water supply deliveries are met for the Klamath Project while also meeting instream flow requirements in the Klamath River. The way in which the Klamath River is managed is expected to change substantially in the coming years due to several ongoing activities in the watershed. This project will extend the goals of the SECURE Reservoir Operations Pilot Study for Upper Klamath Lake (Pilot Study) to encompass the unique changes and challenges that the Klamath River basin faces. Ongoing water management challenges make it critical to assess and evaluate existing tools and management strategies used by water managers in the basin. It is also critical to use what has been learned from the Pilot Study to further explore flexible reservoir operations in the Klamath River basin, as a way of informing water managers on adjusting operational policies in the face of the impending activities outlined above. This study seeks to extend the findings of the Pilot Study and Klamath River Basin Study by further developing and testing the existing RiverWare model so that it may be used for daily operations, including flood control. the University of Colorado Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CU-CADSWES), with the assistance of operators in Reclamation's Klamath Basin Area, will develop a detailed understanding of current operations and how they have changed since the implementation of the 2013 Biological Assessment. The existing RiverWare model operational policies will be enhanced to represent current operations and facilitate daily decision making. Methods and tools for communicating model results with the stakeholder community will be developed and tested. RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT • Review documentation of current Klamath River operations provided by Reclamation's TSC • Assist in documenting foreseeable changes in daily Klamath River Operations • Assist in documenting existing KBAO spreadsheet operations model and decision making information.