Options for a Decision Support System on the Central Platte River Basin

Management of water resources in the central Platte River basin of Nebraska incorporates both ground water and surface water. Development of a decision support system is being contemplated by state and federal governmental agencies and by a number of local stakeholders. Requirements and priorities for the decision support system vary with the perspectives of the different entities — with some focusing on short term operational management on a daily or hourly time step and others focusing on larger time increments and longer range priorities. Water quality and ground water — surface water interaction will also be key issues which the decision support system will need to address. A detailed evaluation of a number of river basin models was undertaken by a team of modeling specialists from the Bureau of Reclamation, the Nebraska Department of Water Resources and several prominent stakeholder groups. Results of this analysis are presented and discussed. Future work will focus on identifying necessary data collection and analysis, selecting and implementing a river basin model suitable for use on the central Platte River system and, ultimately, formulating linkages with ground water and water quality models which can meet the requirements of the participants in this study.