ABSTRACT
Reclamation’s Great Plains Region (GP) manages water resources in numerous river basins in nine states, providing water supply and hydropower to a large portion of the Western United States.  The foundation of Reclamation’s water resources management is reservoir operations.  The Great Plains Region could improve operational efficiency by implementing three key measures: Adopting a consistent reservoir operations modeling tool across its area offices; utilizing risk-based operational decision making, through implementation of ensemble and other state-of-the-art streamflow forecasting techniques; and transitioning to a modern hydrologic database of record.

RiverWare forms a key component as a reservoir operations modeling tool utilized for several projects updating reservoir operations methods in the region.  GP has developed a planning-style RiverWare model in the Upper Missouri Basin and will update an existing model of the St. Mary’s Milk Basin.  GP’s regional office has developed a planning and operations model of Bighorn Reservoir in Montana and created individual operations models for the Reclamation projects in the Upper Missouri.  Additionally Reclamation is taking steps to utilize ensemble forecasts in the operations models.  The region is also developing a transition plan for data management in the future.

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