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• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2007
• Description: CF Section – Bundled Non-Reimbursable Investments – Gridded Snow Water Equivalent Historical Database
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Non-Reimbursable Application - CWCB Construction Fund ~.~
Forni Revised June 2006
3. Provide a brief description of your organization below:
'art B. -Description of the Project or Study
1. Name of the study or project: Gridded Snow Water Equivalent Historical Database
2. What is the purpose of this grant application? Check one.
X Study
Demonstration project.
Rehabilitation or
replacement of existing
Other (Please describe)
3. General location of the study or demonstration project. (Please include county, and approximate distance
and direction from the nearest town):
Up to five high-altitude snowsheds in Colorado, depending on user need, geographic variety,
and data availability.
~, Please provide a brief narrative description of the proposed study or demonstration project including
purpose, need, and service area. (Attach scope of study, if available)
The proposed will create an historical archive of gridded Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)
estimates. Conventional basin-wide estimates of SWE are based on the arithmetic average of
point measurements of SWE within the basin. This arithmetic average does not properly
account for the relative value of different point measurements in explaining total basin SWE.
By its nature a gridded dataset provides a weighted average which will be more compatible
with modern operational products such as SNODAS. In addition, the approach proposed below
will provide for each grid location an estimate of the uncertainty of the estimated SWE value.
This measure of uncertainty can be used to guide the location for new point measurements of
SWE (i.e. new snow courses or SNOTEL sites). See attached Scone of Work for more detail.
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