Conferences

Clement and Neumann present at the 2023 World Environmental & Water Resources Congress

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2023 17:37:16 +0000

Clement and Neumann present at the 2023 World Environmental & Water Resources Congress Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/26/2023 - 11:37

Mitch Clement presented “Optimizing Hydropower Reservoirs with Limited Flexibility on the Columbia River” and David Neumann presented “Deep Aquifer Modeling within an Operations and Planning Decision Support Tool on the Rio Grande River, New Mexico” while attending the EWRI conference May 21 – 25, 2023, in Henderson NV.
More about the conference is available here.

Optimizing Hydropower Reservoirs with Limited Flexibility on the Columbia River
Authors: Mitch Clement, Tim Magee and Edie Zagona, Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES), University of Colorado, �Ǹ�Թ�.
Abstract:
Chelan County Public Utility District in central Washington owns and operates the Rocky Reach and Rock Island hydropower dams on the Columbia River. The dams have a combined generating capacity of 1924 MW but very limited reservoir storage. This presents significant challenges when managing the cascading reservoirs given variable inflows, a combination of licensing and environmental obligations, and the requirement to meet highly variable and uncertain power demand, shaped in part by a high level of variable wind generation in the region. Without careful management, reservoirs can quickly empty, forcing cuts in generating capacity, or they can quickly fill, leading to excessive spill, which not only represents lost generating potential but also produces high levels of total dissolved gas (TDG) resulting in high fish mortality. We will describe the RiverWare Optimization model Chelan uses to guide operations. The optimization meets formal operational requirements while positioning the reservoirs with flexibility to respond to forecast deviations. The model combines RiverWare’s Rulebased Simulation and Goal Programming Optimization solutions over three forecast horizons at a five-minute timestep. After meeting formal requirements, the priority-based solution uses remaining degrees of freedom for desirable operations, such as preventing spill, keeping reservoirs relatively balanced and preventing large changes in flows. Simulation of TDG formation and transport allows the model to alert the system of anticipated TDG problems. The model runs automatically every five minutes with results feeding into Chelan’s real-time control system.

Deep Aquifer Modeling within an Operations and Planning Decision Support Tool on the Rio Grande River, New Mexico
Authors:
David Neumann and Edie Zagona, Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) University of Colorado, �Ǹ�Թ�.
Roseanna M. Neupauer, CEAE, University of Colorado, �Ǹ�Թ�.
John Craven and Nick Mander, Hydros Consulting Inc, �Ǹ�Թ� CO.

Abstract:
In the Rio Grande basin in New Mexico, water managers must balance irrigation and water supply demands, environmental flow targets, flood control targets, and other operating objectives. Several agencies share a suite of models used for planning, forecasting, operations and water accounting called the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM), implemented in RiverWare. While the basin is highly dependent on shallow groundwater and, at longer time scales, the underlying deep aquifer, only the shallow groundwater system is included directly in URGWOM. The shallow groundwater is represented by a gridded network that solves for flow between groundwater nodes and the surface river reaches using an explicit head-based approach. External MODFLOW simulations provide boundary conditions to this shallow groundwater network that represent the deep aquifer. The MODFLOW simulations are computationally intensive, which has limited the number and type of operating scenarios that could be explored with URGWOM. We introduced a set of “aquifer objects” beneath the shallow groundwater network to directly represent the deep groundwater system. This new approach reduces the computational burden by eliminating the MODFLOW simulations, allowing efficient testing of operating policies that are impacted by the response of the deep aquifer, such as increased or decreased pumping and different hydrologic and climate change scenarios. We describe the head-based solution approach for these aquifer objects and show how the MODFLOW model cells are aggregated into larger aquifer objects to represent the entire basin. This new simplified approach produces results that are consistent with the previous approach.

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CADSWES Presentations at 10th iEMSs Conference, September 2020

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 20:45:20 +0000

CADSWES Presentations at 10th iEMSs Conference, September 2020 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/16/2020 - 14:45

CADSWES and CEAE collaborators contributed several presentations to the 10th iEMSs Conference, September 14–18, 2020, in Brussels, Belgium. The conference is sponsored by the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society. Following are the presenters and their presentations (and authors).

Mitch Clement: “Complex Hydro-policy Modeling with RiverWare for Collaborative Multi-objective River System and Hydropower Planning and Operations” (Clement, Zagona)
Nathan Bonham: “Evaluation of Scenario Discovery Methods for Multi-Reservoir System Planning” (Bonham, Kasprzyk, Zagona)
Joe Kasprzyk:
- “Improving Interpretability of Multi-Objective Tradeoff Sets for Environmental Systems” (Kasprzyk, Smith, Raseman, Jacobson, Balaji)
- “Multiobjective Optimization to Support Long-term Water Treatment Planning” (Kasprzyk, Raseman)
- “Using Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms and RiverWare for Generating Robust Lake Mead Operating Policies” (Kasprzyk, Elliot, Zagona, Smith, Prairie, Jerla, Butler)

Collaborators from CADSWES and CU �Ǹ�Թ� Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) delivered multiple presentations at the 10th annual International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs) event, hosted virtually via Zoom from Brussels, Belgium.

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Tim Magee and Mitch Clement at CEATI Conference

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:13:09 +0000

Tim Magee and Mitch Clement at CEATI Conference Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/28/2016 - 11:13

Tim Magee and Mitch Clement attended the Centre for Energy Advancement through Innovation (CEATI) Hydropower Workshop: “Optimizing Hydropower Operations – Mathematical Modelling Tools.” Tim gave a presentation, “RiverWare Optimization” and participated in a presentation with TVA and Riverside Technology, Inc., “The Challenges of System-Wide Operations Modeling at the Tennessee Valley Authority.” The conference was held in Seattle, Washington, November 3–4, 2016. The talks were well received and hope it will expose more people in the industry to the work being done here and more about RiverWare.

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Tim Magee Presents at Joint DOE and European Commission Workshop

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 16:53:57 +0000

Tim Magee Presents at Joint DOE and European Commission Workshop Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/29/2016 - 10:53

Tim Magee attended the workshop “Understanding the Water-Energy Nexus: Integrated Water and Power System Modelling” organized jointly by the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy(DOE) on September 28–29, 2016 at the Joint Research Centre’s Laboratories in Ispra, Italy. The two-day event focused on sharing scenarios, case studies, and modeling activities that featured energy-water tradeoffs in the power system. The participants also identified opportunities to use innovative power-water linkages in models to inform policy and other decision making, and also discussed future priorities for modeling cooperation. Tim gave a presentation, “RiverWare and the Water-Energy Nexus.”

Based on the input received from workshop participants, the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy will produce an overview of existing and future modeling activities and tools relevant to water-energy nexus.

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Canadian Water Resources Association Conference

Anonymous — Mon, 30 May 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Canadian Water Resources Association Conference Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/30/2016 - 00:00

David Neumann attended the 69th National CWRA conference in Montreal, May 25 - 27, 2016. He gave a presentation on "Decision support systems on the upper Rio Grand basin using RiverWare". The Rio Grande is the longest river in southwestern North America, and along its 1900-mile route it supplies critical water resources to agriculture and municipalities (Albuquerque, El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez among them). It also supports unique fisheries and riparian ecosystems along much of its length. Like the Colorado River, the Rio Grande is so thoroughly utilized that it no longer reaches its mouth every year.

The conference proceedings and a list of all the abstracts are available on their website.

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