Impact of streamflow variability on the Colorado River system operation
Date
2007-05
Authors
Keedy, Julia A., author
Salas, J. D. (Jose D.), author
Fontane, Darrell G., author
Merritt, David H., author
Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The water supply provided by the Colorado River system is critical to millions of residents in the arid and semiarid western United States. Understanding the response of the system to possible hydrologic occurrences is important to water planners and managers for short, medium, and long term planning and operation of the system. A long sequence of historical streamflow records is available for the river system; however, this sequence is not sufficient to capture the complex temporal and spatial variability of the river system. The overall objective of the study is to determine the effect of alternative possible future hydrologic scenarios on water supply availability throughout the entire river system. Another objective is to estimate the sustainable yield of the Upper Colorado River basin. This study demonstrates that the traditional definition of the Upper Basin's sustainable yield must be reevaluated in order to determine any sort of sustainable yield volume under stochastic simulation.
Description
May 2007.
Rights Access
Subject
Hydrologic cycle -- Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
Watershed management -- Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
Water-supply -- Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)