Arkansas Basin RiverWare® Model (ABRW) (2016-Ongoing)

Precision began development of the Arkansas Basin RiverWare® (ABRW) model for the Bureau of Reclamation's Eastern Colorado Area Office in 2016. The primary phase of model development saw the basic structure and network of the previously existing Pueblo Field Office’s Fryingpan-Arkansas Project RiverWare® accounting model expanded to a multi-purpose planning model of the Arkansas basin and Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. The Arkansas River headwaters to Pueblo Reservoir network was extended to include the basin below Pueblo Reservoir, Fountain Creek, and the Purgatoire River. This included modeling many new reservoirs, water users, water rights, and accounting. Primary model development was completed in 2018, culminating in its use to support Reclamation’s 2018 Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (EA) for Pueblo Reservoir Temporary Excess Capacity Storage Contracting Program. Since 2018, further development and enhancement has continued while the model has been applied to help answer various important questions throughout the basin.

The ABRW model explicitly simulates the major processes in the basin, including water right allocation and detailed river and reservoir operations and accounting including the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, Winter Water Storage Program, and Pueblo Reservoir Excess Capacity accounts. The model simulates the unique and interdependent operations of numerous basin entities and water users at varying and flexible levels of detail that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual users. Modifiable driving data can be used to efficiently simulate varied hydrologic conditions (e.g., climate change hydrology, forecasted hydrologic conditions, etc.), demand scenarios, and/or operational or policy alternatives that differ from historical conditions, providing a heightened ability to answer complex water management questions in the basin.

In 2020, Precision began adapting and enhancing the model to allow it to be used to support the Reclamation’s short-term operations and forecasting in the basin. See the Arkansas Basin RiverWare® (ABRW) Operations Modeling System project.