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<br />2.0 Relation to Current And Earlier Work in the South Platte <br /> <br />Kunhardt and Fontane (1995), in a Colorado Water Resources Research Institute publication <br />titled "Initiating a water management DSS for the South Platte Basin" (Water in the Balance No. <br />2), noted that as the SoutIh Platte River system operates closer and closer to its absolute capacity <br />(exploding urban population, new mandates for instream flows), partial solutions may lie in <br />better coordination of reservoir operations, further development of conjunctive use potential, and <br />more innovative trading and cooperation between decreed water users. <br /> <br />The autIhors pointed out some technical and institutional issues for the development of a Decision <br />Support System for the SoutIh Platte River Basin. The technical issues are: final development <br />and calibration of a basin-wide, surface/groundwater model, development and calibration of an <br />appropriate water quality model, and most importantly, development and verification oftIhe <br />database to support tIhe models. The institutional issues are: the South Platte Basin, although <br />smaller in area tIhan the Colorado River Basin, will be more complex to model because of <br />groundwater use and the fact that demands typically exceed supplies; the development of a DSS <br />should occur incrementally witIh close communication among model developers, water users and <br />government administrators. <br /> <br />The South Platte Water Rights Management System (SPWRMS) developed by the Center for <br />Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES), under contract <br />with the Colorado Office of the State Engineer (SEO), is a real-time water rights management <br />system for the South Platte that can be remotely accessed from PCs. This system uses tIhe <br />Informix database located in Denver and allows users to query and update information. This <br />database is updated from satellite information gathered from stream gages and existing water <br />rights (CADSWES, 1994). The South Platte Water Rights Management System receives input <br />from PCs in tIhe field, workstation users, and a satellite network. The users have immediate <br />access through computers via moderns, which allows them to connect to the SPWRMS serVer by <br />telephone from anywhere within the South Platte River basin. Data indicating the physical state <br />of the river resides in a central database witIh legal and administrative information. SPWRMS <br />provides tools for viewing this data and testing hypothetical scenarios. The SPWRMS focuses <br />on improving daily river management by enhancing information exchange. The SPWRMS assist <br />water commissioners and other water administrators by making information more readily <br />available. The database contains administrative information, such as the State water rights <br />tabulation for Division 1, as well as real-time river flows for numerous gaging stations on tIhe <br />South Platte and its tributaries. SPWRMS users have access to current diversions, flows, and <br />river calls, as well as historical information. SPWRMS keeps track of river calls. Use of <br />hydro graphs allows water administrators and decision-makers to see when more water becomes <br />available to users. <br /> <br />The Northern PTFLOW (poinT FLOW) analysis is an accounting software that is used to <br />determine reach gains and losses between gaging points on a daily basis. AltIhough not a <br />predictive physically based model, this software can be used in the evaluation of well depletions <br />to tIhe river and aquifer recharge operations, and assists water administrators and water resource <br />planners in locating points of minimum flow which will in turn help identify potential exchanges <br /> <br />0618 <br /> <br />3 <br />