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<br />, H <br /> <br />OlHHS7 <br /> <br />Executive Summary <br /> <br />Integrated River Basin Management and Decision Support <br /> <br />Planning for the future development and operation of river systems involves <br />decision making in a dynamic environment of multiple users; multiple, changing <br />and often conflicting interests, laws and regulations; and considerable uncer- <br />tainty, Planning, managing and decision making are especially challenging <br />when the river passes through, or is under the control of, two or more political <br />jurisdictions, The River Simulation System (RSS) is designed to assist planning, <br />managing or decision making in such environments, <br /> <br />Planning and managing river systems involves a constant reevaluation of objec- <br />tives and identification of various feasible alternatives for satisfying those objec, <br />tives. It also requires the prediction of the multiple economic, environmental and <br />social impacts of such alternatives on each of the multiple interest groups over <br />both space and time, It involves communicating this information to these <br />interest groups and the public at large. This in turn involves debate and public <br />participation. It eventually involves decision making, These decisions may <br />benefit some and impair others. <br /> <br />Performing these planning and management tasks, often under pressure of <br />time constraints and political considerations, and occasionally under conditions <br />of hydrologic stress (such as during periods of droughts or floods or severe <br />pollution), is not easy, Planning and management decisions involving the regu- <br />lation and allocation of water resources in river systems are often very costly, <br />long lasting, and likely to result in both positive and negative impacts that <br />cannot be predicted precisely. No, computer-based decision support system will <br />change these facts. Nevertheless, the effective use of appropriate decision <br />support programs combining data, analysis and display capabilities into a single <br />integrated responsive information system can lead to more informed and more <br />efficient processes of planning, managing, and decision making. BSS is su~/)~ <br />program in which data and models are incol'RoratedJnto a single interactive, <br />OraDhics based. data management, modeling and anal~s_application system. _ <br />RSS can be used to simulate altemative planning and management options <br />under alternative assumptions concerning future hydrology, technology, and <br />demand conditions, These simulations provide a means to predict and evaluate <br />any alternative's multipie impacts, and to display these impacts and other <br />related information in meaningful formats to multiple groups having different <br />interests and information needs. RSS is designed to do all of this relatively <br />rapidly, This. together with the ease in which various parameter values can be <br />changed and operating policy statements can be created and modified, gives a <br />user the capability to ask and have answered numerous "what if" questions, It <br />also provides the user with a tool to analyze very complex river system oper' <br />ating policies, <br /> <br />1 <br />