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great deal of progress on my research. I began by <br />familiarizing myself with the RiverWare pro- <br />gram and the Colorado River Simulation System <br />(CRSS) model developed by the USBR within it. <br />This, of course, is still an ongoing process. <br />Once I was fairly familiar with the model, I began <br />to address data formatting and input issues by <br />creating conversion templates and obtaining code <br />that would facilitate importing many slots of data <br />at one time. This is especially critical for chang- <br />ing the streamflow inputs in the model. Finally, I <br />ran the model by simulating the currently ac- <br />cepted streamflow data according to the index - <br />sequential method, a non - parametric technique <br />often used for such purposes. At present, I am <br />analyzing the data output in order to determine <br />how to best compare the response of the river <br />system to the different streamflow simulations. <br />After performing much of the background re- <br />search and preparatory work, I look forward to <br />comparing final results in the near future. It will <br />be interesting to see the difference between the <br />two streamflow simulation methods as well as <br />the difference between using 500 years of stream - <br />flow data as opposed to 100 years. I hope to <br />obtain finalized streamflow data sets shortly so <br />that I may present some of the final results at the <br />November meeting. For now, I am continuing <br />to learn about the particulars of RiverWare, the <br />CRSS model as I analyze the preliminary output, <br />and SAMS, a software for simulating streamflow <br />sequences based on stochastic techniques. <br />Colorado's Evolving Irrigated Agriculture: <br />Economic Accounting and Impact Analysis <br />Jennifer Thorvaldson, Agriculture and Resource Economics M.S. Candidate <br />Colorado State University <br />n order to analyze the economic <br />impacts of reducing irrigated <br />agriculture in Colorado, my first <br />objective is to develop a model rep- <br />resenting the economy and economic <br />interactions within four water basins <br />in Colorado: Arkansas, Republican, <br />Rio Grande, and South Platte. Work- <br />ing to construct background in the <br />topics important to the discussion, <br />I have spent time on the following <br />tasks: <br />• Reading the Colorado Water <br />Conservation Board's Statewide <br />Water Supply Initiative report to understand <br />the methods used and assumptions made when <br />predicting the number of acres that will be lost <br />to irrigation by the year 2030. <br />Installing and understanding the use of soft- <br />ware for the the IMPLAN Input - Output model <br />and 2002 data in preparation for using the <br />model to perform impact analysis. IMPLAN <br />employs two phases of input- output analysis: <br />descriptive and predictive modeling. <br />The descriptive model includes <br />information about local econom- <br />ic interactions known as regional <br />economic accounts, which de- <br />scribe a local economy in terms <br />of the flow of dollars from pur- <br />chasers to producers within the <br />region. The regional economic <br />accounts are used to construct <br />local -level multipliers. Multipli- <br />ers describe the response of the <br />economy to an impact (a change <br />in demand or production). The <br />multipliers represent the predic- <br />tive model. So far, I have built <br />descriptive models for each of the four river <br />basins in my study. The next step is to build <br />the predictive models to estimate the economic <br />impact of the reduction in irrigated acres. <br />At the Water Study Meeting in Fort Morgan, Colo- <br />rado, I was motivated to see that real people will <br />use my research for real issues. Convened by the <br />Morgan County Economic Development Corpo- <br />ration, the meeting was attended by representa- <br />