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CHAPTER 2 <br />2.1 INTRODUCTION <br />NEEDS ASSESSMENT <br />To develop a decision support system (DSS), the needs of potential system users must first be <br />identified. Information for assessing these needs was collected through interviews with State <br />officials, water users, water managers and water suppliers in the basin. The consultant team <br />interviewed 35 entities (72 individuals) through meetings and telephone calls, in order to assess <br />their needs for the SPDSS (see Appendix A for list of interviewees). Comments concerning <br />SPDSS needs were also collected at Advisory Committee meetings and at the October 2000 South <br />Platte Forum using a comment sheet developed in coordination with the State. Experience gained <br />from the design, construction and use of the Colorado River Decision Support System (CROSS) <br />and the Rio Grande Decision Support System (RGDSS) was also drawn upon during the needs <br />assessment process. In addition, explicit needs identified in the April 1998 SB 96-74 study are <br />included. <br />The interview process identified three types of needs: system needs, application needs and data <br />needs. System needs and application needs are discussed below. Data needs that were expressly <br />identified by users are included in the application category. Other data needs for DSS components <br />and analyses that were identified by the users and consultants are included in Chapter 3. <br />The needs presented in this section have been paraphrased and categorized but otherwise are <br />presented as they were received in the original interviews. Therefore, some of the needs presented <br />identify a system or application that is already in place. For completeness, these identified needs <br />remain in this section even though their development costs, which are further discussed in Chapter <br />5, are insignificant. <br />Several of the expressed needs have <br />associated with other State or Federal <br />identified are discussed in Section 2.11 <br />SPDSS. <br />2.1.1 System Needs <br />been identified as being within the scope of activities <br />agencies or replicating other existing tools. Needs so <br />and have been excluded from further consideration for the <br />System needs are those identified needs that are common to a number of users and categories, <br />including surface water planning, water rights administration and accounting, groundwater <br />planning and water budgets. In addition they include standards developed during the development <br />of DSS systems for the Colorado River and Rio Grande. These system needs indicate that the <br />SPDSS should: <br />• Be a data centered system based on quality data <br />• Characterize water supplies in the study area <br />p:data\gen\spdss~final report\chapter 2.doc 2-1 <br />October 31, 2001 <br />