News

Clement’s Visit to Ecuador Advances Research Collaboration Opportunities

Gwendolyn Miller — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:37:14 +0000

Clement’s Visit to Ecuador Advances Research Collaboration Opportunities Gwendolyn Miller Mon, 09/28/2026 - 13:37

CADSWES researcher Mitch Clement traveled to Ecuador in September to explore possible collaborations with Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), a top-ranked public university in Guayaquil, focusing on water resources management, hydropower operations, and decision support systems.

Meetings with the Engineering and Earth Sciences Faculty (FICT) and its Center for Research and Applied Projects in Geosciences (CIPAT) on September 14 and 15 centered on learning about their research interests and discussing potential areas of collaboration with CADSWES. Mitch delivered presentations to faculty members and graduate students on CADSWES areas of expertise: RiverWare Hydropower Optimization and Decision Making with Hydrologic Uncertainty.

The visit continued September 16 and 17 with tours of several hydropower facilities operated by the Corporación Eléctrica del Ecuador (CELEC), Ecuador’s national electric utility. Representatives from ESPOL joined these site visits, which provided an opportunity to learn firsthand about the operational challenges facing Ecuador’s hydropower systems. Discussions focused on potential collaborations among CELEC, CADSWES, and ESPOL, including the application of CADSWES-developed modeling and decision support tools to evaluate and improve system operations. For this, Clement presented Tools for Hydropower Decision Making, highlighting how RiverWare has been used throughout the United States to support hydropower planning and operations. The presentation generated discussions about how similar approaches could be adapted to address challenges in Ecuador’s energy sector.

The trip concluded with a visit to Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos, where ESPOL is developing a new research center and pursuing research partnerships with the University of Colorado Boulder. The visit provided an opportunity to learn more about future collaborative initiatives and identify areas of mutual research interest related to water, energy, and environmental management. More on the trip is located on the ESPOL website.

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2026 Riverare User Group Meeting: Collaboration and Innovation in Water Management

Gwendolyn Miller — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:27:01 +0000

2026 Riverare User Group Meeting: Collaboration and Innovation in Water Management Gwendolyn Miller Wed, 09/16/2026 - 10:27

The 21st CADSWES RiverWare User Group Meeting was held on August 26-27, 2026, bringing together 144 water management professionals and researchers from 63 organizations. Participants attended both in person and online, representing federal, state, and local agencies, utilities, consulting firms, and research institutions.

In an opening keynote panel, the CADSWES RiverWare technical team shared current major development efforts, ongoing challenges, and longer term outlook for RiverWare. Presentations by users described applications of the RiverWare modeling tools centered on planning, operations, natural flow determination, accounting, flood control, hydropower and decision making under deep uncertainty in a wide range of basins among which were the Colorado River, Truckee-Carson, Tennessee River, Central Utah, the Great Salt Lake, Klamath, and Tarrant Regional Water District.

CADSWES presentations described recent software enhancements to plotting, scripting, rule processing and data management and ongoing development of new functionality in the tools including methods for forecast-informed and risk-informed reservoir operations and simulation-based optimization with a new Borg-RiverWare software module. Trending topic areas highlighted current and potential use of artificial intelligence with RiverWare and compliance with cyber security requirements and standards.

The meeting concluded with an “open mic” interactive session, providing users with an opportunity to ask questions and voice requests and recommendations for enhancements. This session helps to ensure that RiverWare continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of the water management community.

The meeting agenda is available here with links to presentations. The RiverWare User Group Meeting is held every 18 months; the next meeting is planned for February 2028. Agendas and presentations from previous meetings are also available here.

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RiverWare Release 9.7 Now Available

Gwendolyn Miller — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 22:03:15 +0000

RiverWare Release 9.7 Now Available Gwendolyn Miller Wed, 07/15/2026 - 16:03

Highlights of this new release include:

On many windows, the new Quick Plot panel provides an automatic plot of the selected data.
New conditional RPL breakpoints allow RPL execution to pause for a user-specified condition.
The redesigned RPL Debugger layout makes it easier to view breakpoints and the value of the selected expression.
A new RPL Assignment Viewer provides a history of the rules that set a given slot on a particular timestep.
On the Object windows, user-configurable shortcuts provide quick access to plots and SCTs, while a new Find utility helps to locate slots and accounts.
The Script Editor now includes an improved layout, searchable action palette, and integrated description.
System Control Tables (SCTs) can now be saved directly within model files.
The redesigned Multiple Run Management (MRM) configuration provides easier setup and usability.
Many bug and issue fixes.
In addition, version 3.0 of the HEC-RTS and CWMS RiverWare Plugin is now available. This works with RTS/CWMS version 3.5.0. See Supporting Applications on the RiverWare download page.
See the release details here

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Outstanding Dissertation Award

Gwendolyn Miller — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 21:40:20 +0000

Outstanding Dissertation Award Gwendolyn Miller Fri, 06/26/2026 - 15:40

Dr. Deep Shah has been awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR), a prestigious honor recognizing exceptional doctoral research in water resources. The award is highly competitive, with member universities across the United States nominating their outstanding dissertations in two categories: Water Policy and Socioeconomics and Natural Science and Engineering. Dr. Shah was selected as the winner in the Natural Science and Engineering category. His dissertation advances the use of satellite remote sensing to monitor reservoirs worldwide, with a focus on developing a global, open-access, operational reservoir monitoring product. His research also provides new insights into reservoir drought dynamics, helping improve our understanding of water shortages and resilience in managed water systems. Congratulations, Deep!

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David Neumann Presented at ASCE EWRI Conference

Gwendolyn Miller — Wed, 06 May 2026 21:31:02 +0000

David Neumann Presented at ASCE EWRI Conference Gwendolyn Miller Wed, 05/06/2026 - 15:31

David Neumann presented at the 2026 ASCE World Environmental & Water Resources Congress (EWRI), held April 26–29 in Mobile, Alabama. The presentation: Development of an Operations and Accounting Decision Support Toolset of the North Platte River in Wyoming and Nebraska was delivered on April 28.

This talk presented a unified RiverWare-based decision support system for the North Platte basin that improves data management, transparency, and operational efficiency through integrated forecasting, accounting, automation, and user-friendly interfaces. Co-authoring the talk was Dr. Edith Zagona. David Merrill and Lauren Thatch at Reclamation provided input and comments.

The Abstract:

In the North Platte River Basin in Wyoming, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must balance irrigation and water supply demands, flow targets, flood control operations, ownership constraints, and other operating objectives. To operate the system of seven reservoirs, the team uses a suite of tools for day-to-day operations, accounting, mid-term forecasting and long-range planning that consists of multiple spreadsheets, a legacy FORTRAN program, and many files to transfer data. The process can be time consuming with multiple potentials for error. We present a new decision support toolset, implemented in RiverWare, that can be used for these purposes. This unified tool provides improved data management, transparency, and maintainability. We show how the tool can be used to track observed flows and volumes, forecast operations, and account for the ownership of water. We will describe the use of “system accounts” that are used to track the overall ownership of the three projects in the basin and how the water is distribute to each reservoir. We show how the model can be run using scripts and other automation tools for different forecasted inflows. A utility of note is the System Control Table, an intuitive operator interface, used to view data and make overrides if the computed operations need to be adjusted. We’ll also show features including the graphical outputs from the toolset such as plots, reports, and diagrams. We’ll describe plans to add more detailed accounting and enhance the model to run a longer range for planning purposes. Once completed and tested, this new decision support toolset will benefit Reclamation by reducing the overall time and person-hours to operate the system while providing a more flexible, powerful, and intuitive modern interface.

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Professor Balaji Discusses Colorado River Basin Crisis on KGNU

Gwendolyn Miller — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:19:14 +0000

Professor Balaji Discusses Colorado River Basin Crisis on KGNU Gwendolyn Miller Thu, 03/05/2026 - 11:19

Professor Rajagopalan Balaji, one of ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� leading experts in hydrology, climatology, and water resources, recently joined KGNU’s Rossana Longo Better for an in‑depth conversation on the escalating Colorado River basin crisis.

During the interview, Balaji drew on decades of research to explain the severity of the situation and the urgent need for a new, science‑informed basin agreement. He emphasized that while the Colorado River has supported communities, agriculture, and ecosystems across the West for more than a century, changing climate conditions and historical over‑allocation have brought the system to a critical point.

Balaji highlighted the importance of using the extensive knowledge gained over the past 200 years to guide decision‑making today. Collaboration, adaptability, and adjusting our understanding of realistic water supply will be essential for the planning challenges ahead.

“Water is life,” Balaji shared, underscoring the collective responsibility to steward the region’s limited water resources. He notes that we must learn from the past and work together to ensure a sustainable future. Failure to do so will land the task in the courts, which may not result in the best outcome for the river and everyone reliant on it.

The interview is available here and is an important contribution to the public’s understanding of the Colorado River’s future.

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RiverWare Release 9.6 now available!

Gwendolyn Miller — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 23:22:25 +0000

RiverWare Release 9.6 now available! Gwendolyn Miller Mon, 01/26/2026 - 16:22

We are excited to share the news that RiverWare and RiverSMART release 9.6 is now available. New release highlights include:

Create RPL Debugging breakpoints before or after any expression.
Set default plot curve configurations for multiple curves.
Group Ensemble Data Set slots by trace as an alternative to grouping by source slot.
Search for series slots that contain any specified flags.
Change settings to not create .bak files.
Use new script actions to “Move Slots to Objects” and “Activate Unit Scheme”.
Reopen your model quickly using the Reopen Model toolbar button.
Use improved tab labels on Multi-Windows.
Export selected Window Layouts.
Many bug and issue fixes.

More details about this are in the release notes here

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As Colorado River Negotiations Near a Critical Deadline, a New Way of Looking at Risk is Revealing Hard Choices

Gwendolyn Miller — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:45:22 +0000

As Colorado River Negotiations Near a Critical Deadline, a New Way of Looking at Risk is Revealing Hard Choices Gwendolyn Miller Tue, 11/25/2025 - 11:45

A new article “As Colorado River Negotiations Near a Critical Deadline, a New Way of Looking at Risk is Revealing Hard Choices” highlights CADSWES and Reclamation’s new perspectives on river management.
The piece, recently published by the Water Education Foundation in Western Water, explores how a shift in understanding risk is driving new decisions for the future of the river.

The article takes readers through past and present efforts in modeling and managing the Colorado River, with a particular focus on insights gained from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES). The author had the opportunity to interview key players on the Bureau of Reclamation’s modeling team, who are based at CADSWES, and the conversation also involved experts like Professors Edie Zagona and Joseph Kasprzyk, both of whom have contributed significantly to the development of tools used to evaluate river management strategies.

The article highlights the growing importance of these modeling tools, which are increasingly relied upon in this era of great uncertainty to explore a wide range of possible future conditions - including water usage and climate variability - to provide fresh perspectives on how to balance the competing needs of agricultural, urban and environmental stakeholders.

Read the article here

A new article “As Colorado River Negotiations Near a Critical Deadline, a New Way of Looking at Risk is Revealing Hard Choices” highlights CADSWES and Reclamation’s new perspectives on river management. The piece, recently published by the Water Education Foundation in Western Water, explores how a shift in understanding risk is driving new decisions for the future of the river.

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RiverWare Release 9.5

Gwendolyn Miller — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 22:09:12 +0000

RiverWare Release 9.5 Gwendolyn Miller Fri, 08/01/2025 - 16:09

We are excited to announce the new release of RiverWare and RiverSMART 9.5!

Refer to the release notes to get a complete list of all the updates made in this Version 9.5 .

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Maddy Pernat Presents at ASCE EWRI Conference May 19

Gwendolyn Miller — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:54:45 +0000

Maddy Pernat Presents at ASCE EWRI Conference May 19 Gwendolyn Miller Thu, 07/03/2025 - 13:54

PhD student Maddy Pernat presented her recent research at the 2025 ASCE World Environmental & Water Resources Congress (EWRI), held May 19-21 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Her talk, An Interactive, Self-Organizing Map-based Framework for Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty: Insights from the Colorado River Basin, introduced a novel approach for visually comparing the robustness and vulnerability of alternative policy options across a wide range of possible future conditions. The presentation was co-authored with her faculty advisors Prof. Joseph Kasprzyk and Prof. Edie Zagona.

The conference theme was Cool Solutions to Hot Topics. Maddy presented in the Water Resources Modeling, Management, and Policy session.

View the presentation abstract at: https://alaska2025.eventscribe.net/fsPopup.asp?PresentationID=1583397&mode=presInfo

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