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Once again, having this improved means of simulating and predicting the possible ""'j consequences of various options for water resources management in river systems will not necessarily make decision making any easier, However, if used effectively, it can help make the process leading up to those decisions a more effi- cient, more effective, and more informed one. The RSS Modeling System RSS contains three main components: The simulation model, its policy base, and its data-management and display system, RSS is based on an object-oriented representation of the river system compo- nents, Reservoirs,'diversions, and river reaches are among those components that contain their own data and individual operating procedures. Each component is given a certain intelligence and seft-knowledge, so that it 'knows" how to respond to various events. Since these components are connected into a network structure representing a: particular river system, their individual operations may alter the data of other components in the network, These changes in data in other components may, in tum, cause these other components to perform their various operations. The"simulationof events in the network of objects continues in each time step until all components or 'objects" have performed all their necessary operations, The operating policies associated with each component ot the river system are defined in a set of operating policy statements, These statements are easily written, modified, and deleted by any user of the RSS system, The use of oper- ating policy statements, as opposed to coded functions or subroutines, provides the user of RSS with an easy way to define and simulate numerous operating poli- cies, ask numerous 'what if' questions In carrying out sensitivity analyses and comparisons of possible policies, and estimate the impacts of various assump- tions associated with uncertain parameters and scenarios, without having to . change the program code, Policy statements also provide the flexibility to include complex policies that are unique to specific river systems In simulation. The simu- lation of such policies would normally not be poSSible using general purpose simu' lation programs. The RSS Data Management and Analysis System The RSS system is entirely dependent on its data. The system's interface is designed to help the user manage its input and output data. No river system can be simulated before data defining that system and its operation have been entered into the database of RSS. The process identifying a river system to be simulated using RSS requires the user to enter data defining the system's configuration, its components and their physical limitations, its hydrology, its operating policies and constraints, and its simulation parameters, The process ot simulating the river system generates an enormous amount of additional. data, The process of displaying and analyzing the 2