FIRO Panel Held at 2019 Annual California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum

May 1, 2019

CW3E’s F. Martin Ralph (Director), Forest Cannon (Project Scientist), and Anna Wilson (Field Research Manager) recently attended the California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum (CWEMF) 2019 Annual Meeting held in Folsom, California on April 22-24, 2019. CWEMF’s mission is to increase the usefulness of models for analyzing California’s water-related problems, and it carries out this mission through facilitating an open exchange of information on California water issues and ensuring that technical work continues to take into account the needs of stakeholders and decision makers.

The CW3E scientists, along with colleagues at Sonoma Water (Chris Delaney, Senior Engineer), HDR-David Ford Consulting Engineers (Mike Konieczki, Water Resources Engineer) and US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (Steve Turnbull, Research Hydraulic Engineer), presented a panel describing the Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) project. Chris Delaney served as panel moderator. The first panel presentation, given by FIRO Steering Committee Co-Chair F. Martin Ralph, covered FIRO’s purpose and background. Subsequent presentations covered various activities in support of FIRO goals, including data collection and monitoring; atmospheric modeling efforts; and hydrologic modeling efforts. These presentations were followed by an update on current results and status of FIRO at Lake Mendocino, including the major deviation approval and resulting operations using FIRO-developed decision support systems during WY2019.

FIRO Panel members inside the panel conference room during the California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum at the Lake Natoma Inn in Folsom, California. From left: Steve Turnbull, Marty Ralph, Chris Delaney, Anna Wilson, Forest Cannon, and Mike Konieczki.