WWA Front Range Projects and Publications
South Platte Regional Assessment Tool (SPRAT)
Draining the northeast quadrant of Colorado, the South Platte River Basin covers approximately 20 percent of the state and houses roughly 70 percent of its population, including the Denver-Metro area and Front Range cities to the north. SPRAT models the movement and allocation of water throughout the Basin, allowing users to make relative comparisons of the water supply and demand impacts associated with various population growth, climate/hydrologic, and agricultural land-use scenarios, and by allowing the merits of various water management alternatives (adaptations) and infrastructure changes to be similarly compared. Researcher Chris Goemans, CSU.
Aurora Study:
Aurora Water has implemented a variety of demand management strategies in the past 4 years that collectively have produced a significant reduction in municipal water demand. Researchers from the Western Water Assessment (WWA) in cooperation with Aurora Water are conducting an analysis of Aurora Water’s billing database over the past eight years, focusing on the residential sector which showed the highest level of response, in an effort to provide insight into water use, consumption behavior, and effectiveness of watering restrictions. Researchers Douglas Kenney, NRLC, Bobbie Klein, CSTPR, Chris Goemans, CSU, Jessica Lowrey, WWA.
2002 Drought
This site provides WWA publications addressing lessons learned from the 2002 drought as well as other information and resources. Researchers Researchers Douglas Kenney, NRLC, Bobbie Klein, CSTPR, Chris Goemans, CSU, Andrea Ray, Jessica Lowrey, WWA.
Water Rights and Climate ChangeProject
In many basins throughout the West, snowmelt is coming earlier than in historic times, prompting holders of prior appropriation water rights to demand water at an earlier calendar date than in the past. This is obviously problematic for those rights defined in terms of specific calendar dates (associated with historic patterns of use), and may be even more troublesome for rights defined more generally (e.g., such as an “irrigation season” right), as this can have the net effect of increasing the diversion season and, thus, the size of the right. This ongoing project (Summer 2007 to Summer 2008) will examine the extent to which this problem exists in Colorado and in a yet-to-be-determined Pacific Northwest state, where earlier runoff is much more pronounced than in the Rocky Mountain region. Researchers Kenney, NRLC, Klein, CSTPR, Goemans, CSU, Alvord, CIRES.
Climate Workshops for Front Range Water Managers
Climate workshops geared towards municipal, state, and federal water managers, extension specialists, other policy makers interested in climate and water resources management. Topics include long-term climate trends and projections and potential impacts to water resources in the West, as well as seasonal forecasts and outlooks. WWA has an ongoing effort to host or co-sponsor workshops with water managers to develop and maintain two-way communication on needs for climate information by this sector and climate research and products.
Reservoir Management Decision Calendar
Graphically depicts the annual decisions of reservoir operators based on whether they relate to planning, operations or may be affected by climate and weather forecasts. Researchers Andrea Ray, Robert Webb, John Wiener.
WWA Publications and Presentations
(Presentation) Managing Residential Water Demand: Lessons from Aurora, Kenney and Goemans, Mar 13, 2007, Presented as part of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR) seminar series
Kenney, Douglas S., Christopher Goemans, Roberta Klein, Jessica Lowrey, and Kevin Reidy, Residential Water Demand Management in Aurora: Lessons from the Drought Crisis, Colorado Water, February/March 2007
Behavioral and Econometric Lessons from Urban Water Demand under Extreme Drought: Focus on Aurora, Colorado, Goemans, Feb 16, 2007, Presented as part of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics & Department of Economics U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Spring 2007 Seminar Series
Kenney, D.S., C. Goemans, R. Klein, J. Lowrey, and K. Reidy, 2008. Residential Water Demand Management: Lessons from Aurora, Colorado. Journal of the American Water Resources Association44 (1): 192-207.
Klein, Bobbie, Doug Kenney, Jessica Lowrey, and, Chris Goemans, 2007, Factors Influencing Residential Water Demand: A Review of the Literature
Klein, R. and D. Kenney, 2005. Use of Climate Information in Municipal Drought Planning in Colorado. Western Water Assessment Report.
Kenney, D., R. Klein, and M. Clark. Use and Effectiveness of Municipal Water Restrictions During Drought in Colorado. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, February 2004, 77-87.
Nichols, P.D., M.K. Murphy, and D.S. Kenney, 2001. Water and Growth in Colorado: A Review of Legal and Policy Issues Facing the Water Management Community. Boulder: Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado School of Law. (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)
