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 at least the following:

• Summary description of the topic
• The topic's relevance to Colorado River water management
• Annotated links to datasets, tools, and other information resources on that topic

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
• Soil moisture
• Evaporation and evaporative demand
• Groundwater
• Historical streamflow data
• Real-time streamflow data
• Paleohydrology
• Hydrologic variability and trends
• Seasonal streamflow forecasts
• Droughts
• Floods
• Channel dynamics
• Hydrologic modeling
• Future hydrology and water availability

Water operations and planning

• Reservoirs and infrastructure
• Operating guidelines and rules
• River system models
  • Colorado River Mid-Range Modeling System (CRMMS)
  • Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS)
• Planning approaches

Water Use

• Agricultural water use
• Municipal water use
• Environmental/instream water use
• Reservoir evaporation
• Channel and bank losses
• Demand accounting and scenarios
• Future basin demand

Water quality

• Salinity
• Uranium mining and tailings
• Other contaminants

Geomorphology and sediment

• Erosion and sediment sources
• Riverbed sediment dynamics
• Reservoir sedimentation

Ecosystems and environment

• Vegetation change
• Wildfires
• Insect infestations and disease
• Tamarisk and invasive plants
• T&E fish species - Upper Basin
• T&E fish species - Lower Basin
• Invasive mussels
• Traditional Ecological Knowledge
• Salton Sea
• Colorado River Delta

Societal and economic issues

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