Department of Reclamation: Klamath River Basin Management Grant

This project will provide analysis tools for supporting flexible reservoir operations in the context of changing hydrologic conditions including droughts and floods.  Management objectives will also be established for Reclamation’s Klamath Basin area Office to ensure minimum lake levels at Upper Klamath Lake, and ensuring water supply deliveries are met for the Klamath Project while also meeting instream flow requirements in the Klamath River. 

The way in which the Klamath River is managed is anticipated to change substantially in the coming

years due to several ongoing activities in the watershed. In this project, we extend the goals of the

SECURE Reservoir Operations Pilot Study for Upper Klamath Lake (Pilot Study) to encompass the

unique changes and challenges that the Klamath River basin faces. Ongoing water management

challenges make it critical to assess and evaluate existing tools and management strategies used by water

managers in the basin. It is also critical to use what has been learned from the Pilot Study to further

explore flexible reservoir operations in the Klamath River basin, as a way of informing water managers

on adjusting operational policies in the face of the impending activities outlined above.

This study seeks to extend the findings of the Pilot Study and Klamath River Basin Study by further developing and testing the existing RiverWare model so that it may be used for daily operations, including flood control.  Reclamation’s Technical Service Center (TSC) staff will work with operators in Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office and in collaboration with the University of Colorado Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CU-CADSWES) to develop a detailed understanding of current operations and how they have changed since the implementation of the 2013 Biological Assessment.  The existing RiverWare model operational policies will be enhanced to represent current operations and facilitate daily decision making.  Methods and tools for communicating model results with the stakeholder community will be developed and tested.