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<br />III. Introduction: <br /> <br />III. Introduction <br /> <br />Although not unique in Colorado, the <br />sophistication of the Lower South Platte water <br />delivery system is unparalleled. Water managers <br />in the South Platte are facing competing <br />demands for water including sustaining irrigated <br />food production, providing high quality water to <br />growing populations, and establishing flow <br />conditions in the South Platte River to benefit <br />habitats for threatened and endangered species. <br /> <br />In 1973 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled, <br />"Underground waters supplying a stream are <br />open to appropriation like surface waters, <br />because they belong to the river." This put into <br />law the idea that ground and surface waters are <br />intrinsically connected and therefore there is a <br />need to consider them jointly in water resource <br />management decisions. <br /> <br />Specifically, there is a need to upgrade current <br />technology used to manage the conjunctive use <br />of ground and surface water resources. Such as <br />using surface water to recharge groundwater <br />aquifers, and alternatively recognizing that <br />surface water resources can be impacted by <br />groundwater withdrawals. Conjunctive use <br />systems are complex and require data and tools <br />that can work with both large and small areas <br />and over different time scales. <br /> <br />Decision support systems have been employed <br />in other Colorado river basins to model water <br />supply, and the Lower South Platte River basin <br />has been a testing ground for decision support <br />systems since the early eighties. Due to the <br />complex nature of the South Platte, computer <br />tools promise significant benefits for improving <br />water management. <br /> <br />Tools such as SPWRMS (South Platte Water <br />Rights Management System), SAMPSON <br />(Stream Aquifer Model for Management by <br /> <br />Simulation and Optimization), and others have <br />been evaluated and presented in a number of <br />CWRRI publications (Raymond et aI., 1996; <br />McCarthy and Light, 1995; Kuhnhardt and <br />Fontane 1995; Warner et aI., 1994; and Klein, <br />1994). In addition to these efforts, the State of <br />Colorado has begun a feasibility study to <br />evaluate the implementation of a decision <br />support system for the entire South Platte River <br />Basin (CWCB, 2000b). In anticipation of this <br />system, water management organizations are <br />developing tools tailored to their specific needs. <br /> <br />The evolution of decision support systems has <br />resulted in data-centered approaches that utilize <br />independent and flexible modeling components. <br />These components should be able to interact <br />within the framework of the decision support <br />system or operate independently for specific <br />modeling tasks. Data gathered for the system <br />should be accessible to all the models and tasks. <br />The models should utilize output from other <br />models as needed, but not require it. This <br />approach calls for the development of tools and <br />databases that are tailored to the water <br />management needs for a particular river basin. <br /> <br />The goal of this project was to identify gaps in <br />water management tools currently available in <br />the Lower South Platte River Basin and <br />implement computer systems that could be <br />incorporated into a future decision support <br />framework. This effort required the ability to <br />match data acquisition, modeling, and user <br />interfaces to meet mana~er's needs. New <br />approaches to water research are being <br />employed and university researchers are <br />working hand-in-hand with water managers so <br />that the computer tools developed aid in the <br />managers' decision processes. <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />Completion Report: South Platte Mapping and Analysis Program <br />