HYDROSS Functionality Enhancements

Project ID: 1044
Principal Investigator: Nancy Parker
Research Topic: Water Operation Models and Decision Support Systems
Funded Fiscal Years: 2004
Keywords: None

Research Question

How can enhancements to functionality of the HYDROSS model and its graphical user interface better respond to the evolving needs of model users?

This proposal will support enhancements to the functionality of the HYDROSS model and corresponding updates to the graphical user interface.

Need and Benefit

HYDROSS needs several functionality upgrades, including allowing: manual assignment of diversion numbers, return flows to source stations, cross basin diversions, and reservoir accounts to be expressed as a percentage of storage capacity. A 20-staff-day fiscal year (FY) 2003 Science and Technology (S&T) Program research project will result in source code updated to the FORTRAN 90 standard with clear data structures, streamlined input processing, and simplified model execution. The updated code will offer a functional development environment for adding these long-requested enhancements to HYDROSS functionality.

Changes to the graphical user interface will be needed to correspond to code upgrades under the FY03 work and the above functionality enhancements.

River system models are the analytical tools at the center of most planning or operations evaluation studies that Reclamation and our stakeholders undertake today. The agency's mission involves making critical decisions that affect water availability and adherance to administrative and legal mandates, and we need to maintain these tools to be applicable to a wide and expanding range of problems.

All models require periodic enhancements to keep their capabilities current with the evolving community of users and requirements to address new problems. HYDROSS is a general-purpose water rights accounting model that has been used for over 20 years to address a wide variety of river and reservoir system planning needs. It has found the most use in the Great Plains (GP) Region, but it is completely generic in nature and can be applied to any river basin.

This proposed effort meets the S&T Program's stated mission to research, develop, demonstrate, and encourage deployment of tools that enhance reliability of water supply deliveries. The completion of studies that use the model enhancements will result in improved adequacy and accuracy, and increased ease of use will result in saved time. Time and accuracy would be reasonable measures of the project benefits.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Please contact research@usbr.gov about research products related to this project.

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Last Updated: 6/22/20