Interactive Decision Support for Hydrologic, Hydraulic, & Instream Flow Criteria

by Marshall Flug, Natl Park Service, Fort Collins, United States,
Darrell G. Fontane, Natl Park Service, Fort Collins, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Water Management in the '90s: A Time for Innovation

Abstract:

Most often, impacts on natural resources from alternative river discharges are not quantified. The personal computer (PC) can provide access to useful techniques for analyzing multiobjective systems. This includes algorithms to quantify relations between flow, seasonality, and ecologic attributes for instream flow analysis. A spreadsheet based package is used to analyze and integrate hydrologic, hydraulic, and natural resource attribute information. Interconnected and linked modules operate as a decision support system (DSS). The computer package provides for a rational and consistent evaluation of flow alternatives (i.e., hydrographs) based upon a quantitative measure of each objective (i.e., attribute benefit function) for the hydraulic characteristics (i.e., cross-section) of the river system. A final component of the DSS is a multicriteria decision analysis matrix for analyzing tradeoffs among resources.

Subject Headings: Streamflow | Rivers and streams | Decision support systems | Computer analysis | Hydraulics | Computer programming | Water discharge

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