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<br />instream uses of water include hydroelectric use and reservoir evaporation. About 40 percent of <br />the domestic use is for lawn watering. The remaining water-use categories (commercial, <br />industrial, livestock, mining and other) account for only 6.2 percent of total off-stream water use <br />(USGS, 1993). <br /> <br />The major users of the river system are Front Range cities and the highly productive plains <br />agriculture, and both groups are very diligent in obtaining water from the Platte River System. A <br />framework for modeling and decision support for the overall water use in South Platter River <br />Basin could help to identify existing and potential problems and solutions for coordinating and <br />managing the water use in the basin both for municipal and agricultural uses. <br /> <br />1.0 South Platte Model Evaluation Project <br /> <br />Determining the current uses of water resources and anticipating future management alternatives <br />requires data collection (physical, temporal, and spatial) and modeling systems that are data <br />driven and fully interactive. With so many stakeholder groups working with water resources in <br />the basin, general tools should be developed with common databases so that individual groups <br />can analyzed management alternatives. " <br /> <br />To bring together data collection efforts and explore common modeling approaches, the <br />Integrated Decision Support (IDS) Group has been working with the Colorado Water Resources <br />Research Institute on a project called "South Platte Model Evaluation Project." An advisory <br />committee was formed with the following representatives: <br /> <br />Jon Altenhofen - Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District <br />Ray Bennett - State Engineers Office (Denver) <br />James Hall- State Engineers Office (Greeley) <br />Forrest Leaf - Central Colorado Water Conservancy District <br />Jack Odor - Groundwater Appropriators of the South Platte <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />This committee met regularly (about every 6 weeks beginning in early 1996) and evaluated the <br />available data, data needs of the users, and modeling strategies. The group has used the work <br />done by Darrell Fontane, Henry Kunhardt, and Robert Leaf (Kunhardt and F ontane, 1995 and <br />Fontane et al., 1994). Based on the information provided by the advisory group members, a <br />small groundwater data development effort was started. This effort involved the development of <br />GIS databases for well location and streamflow depletion factors (SDFs). The committee <br />emphasized that understanding the groundwater resources through better data and models was a <br />priority for maximizing future conjunctive use opportunities. <br /> <br />As part of this effort, IDS has evaluated SAMSON (Stream-Aquifer Model for Management by <br />SimulatiON) model. The committee wanted to determine the needs of state, local, and private <br />agencies who would be using water management models, and evaluate what role the SAMSON <br />model could play in meeting those needs. <br /> <br />2 <br />