Projects

This page provides information on current multi-person and/or multi-entity projects focussed on generating physical and social science applicable to the Colorado River Basin.

Current Projects

Anticipating Future Impacts on Streamflow using Multi-Century Climate Records and Applied Hydrologic Models

Project Summary

The overarching focus of this project is on influence of temperature on Colorado River streamflow, particularly during drought. This project, a direct response to the questions and concerns expressed by water resource managers at the end of the recently concluded SW CSC project, builds on that project in two key ways. First, it extends our collaborative work with CRB water management partners to investigate the range of potential drought conditions under early 21st century warming, using both instrumental and paleohydrologic records. Second, it applies mechanistic approaches to more explicitly examine drivers of drought throughout the Colorado River basin, with a focus on streamflow efficiency and the role of warming temperatures. We expand work to include the lower Colorado River basin, and also address an additional question regarding the impacts of drought on ecosystem health in the upper basin. By working collaboratively with water managers, our intention is to co-produce information and knowledge that is usable for anticipating how water resources are likely to be impacted by the range of climatic conditions that will occur in the future.

Scientific Team

Scientific team: Greg Pederson (USGS, Bozeman MT), Greg McCabe (USGS, Denver CO), Steph McAfee (University of Nevada, Reno), Adam Csank (University of Nevada, Reno), and Steve Gray (USGS, Anchorage AK) Collaborative partnerships with water management agencies: Bureau of Reclamation; Salt River Project; Denver Water; Colorado River District; NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center

Website

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Point of Contact

Connie Woodhouse

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Utah State University Colorado River Initiative

Publications and Presentations

Water Resource Modeling of the Colorado River: Present and Future Strategies

Website

Center for Colorado River Studies

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Colorado River State of the Science

Project Summary

Effective water resources management in the Colorado River Basin relies on using science to inform operational and planning activities. While this is true at any time, the ongoing historic drought and recent scientific advancements provide additional motivation for the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and stakeholders to better understand opportunities to incorporate and advanceclimate and hydrologyresearch. Due to the large volumeof scientific activity relating to the climate and hydrology of the Colorado River Basin, an important step in strategically integrating new science into practice is to assess the current state of knowledge. To this end, the Upper and Lower Colorado Regions of Reclamation and a work group of state and local water management agencies are partnering with Western Water Assessment (WWA) and Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) to synthesizeprogress in climate and hydrology researchin the Colorado River Basin. The resulting report will establish a common scientific foundation on which to base future management and research efforts. The report will primarily focus on thehydroclimatic inputs to Reclamation’s short-, mid-, and long-term operations and planning tools. The report will describe research on the methods, models, concepts, and datasets that currently,or may in the future,contribute to Reclamation’s and other stakeholders’ activities, aswell as remaining knowledge gaps, uncertainties, and opportunities. The report is expected to be available in the fall of 2019.

Publications and Presentations

Final CRS SoS Project Overview

Point of Contact

For more information:

1. Seth Shanahan, Southern Nevada Water Authority—seth.shanahan@snwa.com
2. Rebecca Smith, Reclamation—rebeccasmith@usbr.gov
3. Jeff Lukas, WWA—lukas@colorado.

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Reclamation Colorado River Science Efforts

Reclamation's Ongoing Research Projects

Reclamation's Colorado Research to Operations (Includes past projects)

Current Projects (described in uppermost link above)

1. Exploration of Robust Planning Techniques in the Colorado River Basin
2. Exploring the Feasibility and Benefits of Incorporating Additional Data Sources into the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center’s Consumptive Use Modeling
3. Using ICAR and En-GARD to Explore the Implications of Using Different Downscaling Methods to Generate CMIP5-Derived Streamflow Projections
4. Generating and Evaluating Temperature-Conditioned Colorado River Basin Streamflow Ensembles
5. Exploring Climate and Hydrology Projections from the CMIP5 Archive
6. Identifying Future Climatological Ensembles and their Impacts on Colorado River Reservoir Operations

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Colorado River Research Group

Point of Contact

Doug Kenney

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Open ET

Project Summary

Filling the Biggest Data Gap in Water Management

Sustainable water management is one of the most challenging issues of our time, especially in arid regions like the western U.S. The health of communities, rivers and wildlife depends on adequate water supplies, and nothing is more important to agriculture’s ability to produce food for the world’s growing population. Maximizing the benefits of our water supplies requires careful measurement of their availability and use. For irrigated agriculture, evapotranspiration (ET) is a measure of the water used to grow food, and is the biggest water use in most arid environments around the world. However, access to this data has been limited and expensive, keeping it out of the hands of most water users and decision-makers. OpenET aims to provide open and easily accessible ET data for improved water management.

Note: OpenET is not Colorado River specific.

Website

Open ET

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Past Projects

These are older, notable projects.

Severe and Sustained Drought Study

1995? era study on how the basin would respond to a long term drought. This was mostly ignore by decision makers.

Papers were published in a special edition of the Journal of the American Water Resources.