WSP00452

• File Number: 8200.766
• Description: Gunnison River Basin General Publications - Correspondence - Reports
• State: CO
• Basin: Gunnison
• Water Division: 4
• Date: 10/27/1992
• Author: Unknown
• Title: Gunnison Basin Models - Planning Model - 1991-1992 - Draft Functional Specification - Gunnison River Basin Planning Model
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

Functional Specification for the Planning Model .

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starting contents, but it is not planned to support user specification of initial return flows,
because the process would be complex and would have little apparent utility.

Output Specification

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The collection of capabilities which support the user in viewing, analyzing and
understanding the output from a model run is informally referred to as the model's "back end,"
In general, the better defined and more narrowly restricted the users' interests and needs are,
the easier it becomes to provide effective software support for this area of activity. .

The flexibility desired in the Planning Model for analyzing a wide range of scenarios
and impacts from different perspectives makes it difficult to foresee what kinds of output and
displays will be most valuable to users. Accordingly, a decision was made during the needs
analysis to provide basic capabilities for users to specify output parameters and to generate
"spreadsheets" containing output data, Users will then be able to utilize all of the capabilities
of commercial spreadsheet software in analyzing the model's output, comparing output for
different runs and generating tables and graphs to present the information in forms most
appropriate to their particular needs.

The volume of output which it will be possible to obtain from a model run means that
users will need to be selective about the output to be generated, Two distinct forms of output
will be supported by the model. The first type corresponds to the selections which must be
made by the user before the model run begins, This output will be generated during the model
run and stored in "binary" form, in order to save both storage space and run time, This means
that this form of the output can be read by the computer, but not by humans, At any time
. following the model run the user will be able to extract data from the stored binary form and
put it automatically into a spreadsheet, where it may be inspected, manipulated or graphed by
the user,

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Utilities for the extraction of time-series data from the binary output into a spreadsheet
will be included with the model. The Users Manual will include discussion and examples of
common ways of combining, comparing and graphically displaying such output. Binary output
files for the Baseline and Historical scenarios will be provided with the model so that those
scenarios do not have to be run in order to compare their results to user-defined scenarios.

On-line Documentation or "Help"

In addition to the Users Manual, which is not covered by this Functional Specification,
users will be able to get manual-like assistance through the user interface. Many levels of
sophistication are possible in providing context-sensitive help to users. In general, the design
objective for the Planning Model is to provide an elementary level of help linked to the
"current" setting of the user's activities. Usually this would be related to the type of "dialog
box" present on the screen when help was requested.

The scope of help provided would explain the purpose and usage of the dialog box and
the options the user would have at that time, including how to abandon the current setting with
or without saving work and how to terminate activity altogether. It is not planned to
incorporate more advanced forms of on-line help with .the model, since this would conflict with
other design goals, such as flexibility.

COMPATIBILITY WITH THE PROPOSED CROSS

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The Slate of Colorado is currently studying the feasibility of developing a Colorado
River Decision Support System (CROSS). As currently envisioned, the CROSS would be a

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