BOARD00059 ‎(3)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 1/23/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Litigation Account Status Report - Kansas v Colorado, Arkansas Basin Studies and Activities - Colorado River Activities
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

ET unless other monitored fields were within about a mile, then the neighboring fields
were served by one atmometer.

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Crop cuttings were taken at multiple locations within most of the fields where in"igation
applications were being monitored. Soil water salinity was estimated at locations near
the cuttings using EM-38 surveys within these fields. The crop yield at each location was
divided by the maximum measured yield in the respective study regions for each
respective crop to estimate relative crop yield. The goal was to obtain data that would
allow us to develop relationships between soil salinity and crop yield.

A related effort that is not being conducted using CWCB funds is the development of the
use of remote sensing techniques to estimate crop ET. ET can be estimated using satellite
imagery by applying an energy balance approach. This approach uses the thermal
info1l11ation from the infrared band as well as the crop reflectance (NDVI). The Colorado
State University research group has developed and implemented a remote sensing
algorithm for estimating ET called RESET (Remote Sensing of ET) which takes into
account spatial and temporal variability using an energy balance approach. RESET can
estimate the actual crop ET at the time when the satellite image was taken. The goal of
this research is to estimate how much ET is reduced due to soil water salinity in the
Arkansas River Valley. This work is being partially supported by the United States
Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Colorado
Cooperative Extension.

H-I Model Review by Consultants

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The objective of this project is to have changes to the H-I Model code and calibration
made by the State Engineer's Office reviewed by additional experts from Hydrosphere
Resource Consultants and Helton & Williamsen in order to have the revised model ready
for presentation to Special Master Arthur Littleworth and to have expert reports prepared
by the additional experts who will provide testimony to the Special Master.

Changes to the H-I Model to be used to quantify the depletions to usable Stateline flows
for the period 1997-2004 that are currently being reviewed by the Special Master were
completed in January, 2006. Following that completion, the H-I Model was recalibrated
by experts for both Colorado and Kansas. Hydrosphere Resource Consultants perfonned
all analysis comparing the calibration statistics produced for the Colorado calibration and
the Kansas calibration of the H-I Model. Both Hydrosphere Resource Consultants and _
Helton & Williamsen assisted the State Engineer's Office in an evaluation of the H-I
Model code to determine the cause of differences between the model results produced by
the Colorado calibration and the Kansas calibration. Helton & Williamsen assisted the
State Engineer's Office in preparing the "Report to the Special Master Concerning
Oi fferences Between the Colorado and Kansas Calibrations of the Hydrologic
Institutional Model" which was submitted in June, 2006.

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