Services / Water Resources Planning and Management
Modeling and Decision Support
Hydrosphere develops and uses a wide variety of modeling systems and decision support tools for analysis and management of water resources. Our modeling efforts span a number of disciplines, including groundwater, water quality, hydrology and hydraulics. In addition to this broad competence, we have developed particular expertise in the area of systems analysis and optimization. Our network optimization code, known as the Central Resource Allocation Model (CRAM), has been used to model system operations and water allocation in dozens of river basins in the western United States. This flexible and almost unlimited network modeling system allows us to build analysis tools that are tailored to the unique problem at hand, with little compromise. To support efficient and informed decision-making, we build our network models as integrated systems with multiple components such as databases, data display and interpretation tools, GIS and graphical user interfaces. Many of these decision support systems have been delivered to clients for their own use.
- Analyze historical river operations in support of litigation
- Simulate systems operations under hypothetical drought scenarios
- Examine conjunctive use of surface and groundwater
- Evaluate effects of operating alternatives on endangered species
- Investigate the impacts on water quality of changes in system conditions
Our models have been used to:
We have also been retained to develop river basin models using other entities' modeling systems, such as Colorado's Rio Grande Decision Support System and the USBR's RiverWare system. RiverWare is a river basin simulation and optimization tool developed at the University of Colorado in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Tennessee Valley Authority.