Science and applications

Overview

This section of the wiki covers a broad set of topics pertaining to science that is relevant and/or applied to Colorado River management, as well as specific applications of the science, such as streamflow forecasting.

Each page contains the following content, as appropriate:

• Summary description of the topic
• The topic's relevance to Colorado River water management
• Annotated links to datasets, tools, and other resources on that topic
• New research on that topic (since 2020)

Topics

Cross-cutting reports

• 2021 SECURE Water Act reports
• 2020 CRB State of the Science
• 2012 Colorado River Basin Study

Weather and climate

• Climate patterns and variability
• Recent climate change
• Weather and climate monitoring
• Weather and climate forecasts
• Projected future climate

Hydrology and water availability

• Water balance and basin water budget
• Snowpack
  • Snowpack processes & patterns
  • Snowpack monitoring
  • Dust-on-snow
  • Cloud seeding
• Soil moisture
• Evaporation and evaporative demand
• Groundwater
• Streamflow
  • Paleohydrology
  • Historical (gaged) records
  • Adjusted streamflow
    • BoR Natural Flows
    • Other naturalized
  • Variability & trends over time
  • Recent trends & climate change
  • Real-time streamflows
  • Seasonal streamflow forecasts
• Droughts
  • Dynamics/causes
  • Impacts
  • Historic droughts
  • Paleodroughts
  • Megadrought
• Floods
  • Historic
  • Paleofloods
• Channel dynamics
• Hydrologic modeling
• Water operations and planning
  • Reservoirs and infrastructure
  • Operating rules
  • River system models
    • Colorado River Mid-Range Modeling System (CRMMS)
    • Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS)
    • Other models used in the basin
  • Planning approaches
• Future hydrology and water availability
  • Methods
  • Future streamflow changes
  • Other hydrology changes
• Synthesis: Future basin water availability

Water Use

• Agricultural water use
  • ET measurement
  • Conservation strategies
• Municipal water use
  • Conservation strategies
• Environmental/instream water use
• Other depletions
  • Reservoir evaporation
  • Channel/bank losses
  • Phreatophytic vegetation
• Demand accounting and scenarios
  • State/basin reports
  • Demand schedules
  • Other demand scenarios
• Synthesis: Future basin demand

Water quality

• Salinity
  • Salinity monitoring
  • Salinity control measures
• Other contaminants
  • Uranium mining/tailings

Geomorphology and sediment

• Channel geomorphology
• Erosion/sediment sources
• Riverbed sediment dynamics
• Reservoir sedimentation

Ecosystems and environment

• Overview
• Forests
  • Disturbances
    • Wildfires
    • Insect infestations/disease
• Riparian
  • Tamarisk and invasive plants
• Aquatic
  • T&E fish species
    • Upper Basin
    • Lower Basin
  • Invasive mussels
• Traditional Ecological Knowledge
• Specific hot spots
  • Salton Sea
  • Colorado River Delta

Societal and economic issues

• Benefits of water
• Impacts of shortage and drought
• Social inequity and vulnerability
• Other