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<br />000060 <br /> <br />South Platte Decision Support, 4 <br /> <br />employs several user interface techniques that would be desirable in a DSS, The Colorado Water <br />Conservation Board (CWCB) contemplates extending the new Colorado River DSS (CRDSS) to the <br />South Platte. At least two South Platte DSS designs have been proposed in recent dissertations at <br />Colorado State University. <br /> <br />John Eckhardt's 1991 dissertation, Real-time Reservoir Operation Decision Support Under the <br />Appropriation Doctrine, details the design of a DSS for operation of two or more reservoirs using a <br />program written in Lotus 1-2-3 to evaluate management options, taking into account water rights. <br />Eckhardt noted that operators suffer more from information overload than lack of information, and <br />showed how a systems approach can help them sort out their options. His DSS was intended for <br />real-time operating support, as opposed to system planning or modeling. Eckhardt's model is <br />relevant for multiple reservoir operation on the South Platte when the relationships between <br />reservoirs are well known. His DSS did not specifically include a groundwater flow component, <br />and was not intended as a model of the entire basin. <br /> <br />Jeffrey Fredericks cQIIlpleted his dissertation in 1993, titled Decision Support System for <br />Coniunctive Stream-Aquifer Manall'ement Under Prior Appropriation. Like Eckhardt, Fredericks <br />employed some standard, off-the-shelf software (DBase, Quattro Pro, IDRISI, Maplnfo) in his <br />system, but also developed several specialized routines for reading data from external data bases. <br />MODSIM was used to model the river and tributary aquifer and MODRSP was used to generate <br />aquifer response coefficients for input to MODSIM. An existing augmentation plan on a fifty mile <br />reach of the lower river was used as a test case (Bijou Irrigation Co.), with inflow and outflow <br />assumed. Fredericks's framework could conceivably be expanded to include the entire basin, but it <br />is clear that the entire basin is considerably more complex than the test case. <br /> <br />Current Status of Potential DSS Components <br /> <br />Databases: Fredericks accessed several data sources for his test case, including the USGS, US <br />Bureau of the Census, the Colorado State Engineer, and the records of the augmentation plan that he <br />modeled. He performed an extensive inventory of existing water resources data and noted that no <br />central facility exists for data collection and distribution. While he found that most data was <br />available in a digital format, the various formats were not always compatible. <br /> <br />The SPWRMS database includes many of the spatial and surface flow characteristics, as well as the <br />legal flow priorities, that would be needed for a South Platte DSS, This system is also set up for <br />real-time data acquisition from the state's satellite telemetry scheme. <br /> <br />CWRRI has identified several unmet data needs necessary to model the stream-aquifer relationship <br />of the lower basin. These include acreage and crops irrigated under individual ditches, well <br /> <br />04/11/95 <br />