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<br />OO~42~ <br /> <br />OBJECTI VES <br /> <br />The main objective of the cooperative basin assessment and the residuals- <br />management analysis is,to evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of <br />alternative development plans of energy and water resources in the Yampa River <br />basin, The two projects will consider existing and feasible policies and in- <br />stitutional aspects that will dictate or influence regional development of <br />energy and water resources. <br /> <br />The second objective of the basin assessment is to apply and document as- <br />sessment methodologies so that they might be more readily transferable to oth- <br />er energy-rich, arid regions of the United States, Considered in the basin <br />assessment are the relationships between energy development and environmental <br />quality, application and evaluation of techniques for utilizing of economic, <br />social, and demographic information in river-basin assessment studies, and im- <br />provement of programs for providing relevant hydrologic information, <br /> <br />Secondary objectives of the residuals-management analysis are development <br />of operational procedures for implementing coal-resource residuals-management <br />analysis in a regional context, and development of an approach for studying <br />the variables that affect water use.' Fulfillment of the basin'"assessment and <br />residuals-management analysis objectives will be accomplished within the con- <br />straints of project scheduling, existing funding, and available manpower, <br /> <br />APPROACH <br /> <br />In carrying out the above-sta,ted objectives, the emphasis of the basin <br />assessment is to apply current methodologies to a specific basin with consid- <br />.eration of operational aspects of water-resources planning and management; <br />whereas, the emphasis of the residuals-management analysis is research-ori- <br />ented, developing conceptual methodologies, as well as looking at longer-term, <br />broader-scale regional implications. <br /> <br />A generalized approach to regional assessments is shown in figure 2, Any <br />basin-planning process should be considered iterative (Bennington and others, <br />1974), cycl ing through the "management strategies" component (fig, 2), Here <br />various policy, planning, and management issues are formulated, evaluated, and <br />modified, based upon the various analyses carried out in the other flow-chart <br />components, <br /> <br />This conceptual approach to regional assessments is believed to be appl i- <br />cable to the Yampa River basin assessment, Components given in the flow dia- <br />gram (fig. 2) will be emphasized in varying degrees in the basin assessment, <br />depending upon fiscal and manpower constraints and degree of successful and <br />timely execution of the residuals-management analysis, <br /> <br />Throughout the project, communicative interaction with recognized author- <br />ities determining or influencing policies on energy development and related <br />water uses in the basin will be solicited, In the basin assessment, available <br />data will be assembled, edited, and computerized for analysis and interpreta- <br />tion, Where data are deficient for delineating problem-oriented or site- <br />specific aspects of the basin assessment, additional data wi) I be collected, <br /> <br />5 <br />