News

Post-2026 Operations Exploration Tool to be presented at WaterSciCon24

Anonymous — Wed, 29 May 2024 16:17:13 +0000

Post-2026 Operations Exploration Tool to be presented at WaterSciCon24 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/29/2024 - 10:17

Reclamation has partnered with the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Virga Labs to create a web-based platform on which stakeholders can explore different operational strategies through a Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty lens.

The Post-2026 Operations Web Tool has been used for the negotiation process to find a new operating policy for the Colorado River Basin. You can access the tool here, and if you're headed to WaterSciCon24 you can hear KRG doctoral graduate Dr. Rebecca Smith present about the tool on June 25.

The title, authors, and abstract are found below and at the conference website.

The Colorado River Basin Post-2026 Operations Exploration Tool: Connecting Policymakers and Stakeholders Through a Web-Based Decision-Support Platform

R Smith, S Martin, EA Zagona, JR Kasprzyk, N Bonham, N Daniels, C Jerla

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is currently leading a formal decision-making process to replace Lake Powell and Lake Mead operating agreements, which expire at the end of 2026. Enabling a wide range of stakeholders to engage with technical information is key to identifying successor guidelines that are robust to the effects of climate change while balancing diverse resource priorities. To support these objectives, Reclamation has partnered with the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Virga Labs to create a web-based platform on which stakeholders can explore different operational strategies through a Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty lens. Across a series of dynamic dashboards, users can create their own custom strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead operations, compare hundreds of potential strategies in terms of performance tradeoffs and robustness, and learn what hydrologic conditions could lead to system vulnerability under any given strategy. This Colorado River Basin Post-2026 Operations Exploration Tool represents an advancement in the ability of policymakers at Reclamation to collaborate with stakeholders in the generation and analysis of technical information. The platform is also an example of a successful years-long partnership between a government agency, academia, and private industry to create an innovative tool that is supporting an important, ongoing long-term planning process.

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Washington Post feature on Colorado River work

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Washington Post feature on Colorado River work Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 02/11/2024 - 05:00

Joshua Partlow in the Washington Post wrote an article "Inside the race to grasp the fate of the Colorado River", discussing the history of how data analysis and modeling has been helping save the Colorado River. Through extensive interviews at CADSWES, the article paints a vivid picture of the development of decision support tools including work done by CADSWES and KRG.

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Congratulations to Dr. Mikaela DeRousseau!

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:31:45 +0000

Congratulations to Dr. Mikaela DeRousseau! Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/22/2020 - 12:31

Dr. Mikaela DeRousseau recently defended her doctoral dissertation, graduating in Summer 2020. Her dissertation developed a new multi-objective framework for desigining sustainable concrete mixtures, combining machine learning, life cycle assessment (LCA), and multi-objective evolutionary algorithm optimization. Her NSF-funded research also contributed a review of decision support for concrete mixture design, and a workshop that brought together academics, concrete designers, and regulators.

Dr. DeRousseau is now Data and Methodology Manager for Building Transparency, a non-profit that was incubated at the Carbon Leadership Forum in Seattle, WA. In her role, she will be developing and documenting data quality assessment methodology for environmental product declarations, advancing the quality and reliability of embodied carbon and LCA data, and advocating for improved, rigorous data standards to PCR committees and external organizations.

She had this to say about her time at CU:

Being advised by both Dr. Kasprzyk and Dr. Srubar, I gained a very interdisciplinary skill set. My research utilized multi-objective optimization, statistical learning, life cycle assessment, and cement and concrete science. I'm excited to continue to apply the skills I've honed to reduce the embodied carbon of buildings and to develop tools that make designing low-carbon infrastructure a simpler task.

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Congratulations to Dr. Billy Raseman!

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 20:56:14 +0000

Congratulations to Dr. Billy Raseman! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/25/2019 - 14:56

Dr. Billy Raseman recently defended his doctoral dissertation, graduating in Summer 2019. After graduation, he has accepted a position as Assistant Engineer at Hazen and Sawyer in Lakewood, CO working to bring intelligent water technologies to the drinking water, wastewater, and water reuse sectors. In Billy's thesis, he researched and developed modeling and optimization techniques to make drinking water treatment safer, more resilient, and cost-effective. His work is motivated by the increasing strain on the water sector due to population growth, aging infrastructure, climate change, and stringent regulations. Specifically, Billy developed a decision support tool that combines advances in stochastic water quality, water treatment modeling, multi-objective optimization, and visual analytics, to enhance treatment operations. In the process, Billy contributed to the USEPA Water Treatment Plant Model and managed the development of Parasol--an open source, interactive visualization library for multi-objective decision-making. Dr. Raseman had the following comments about his time at CU:

I learned to think about decision-making in a new light. Nearly every choice we make has tradeoffs--from buying a car to managing the Colorado River. With multi-objective optimization, we can fully understand and explore those tradeoffs and have an honest conversation about what we value. I'm excited to bring this paradigm to the drinking water sector and challenge the way we design and operate our treatment infrastructure.

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Congratulations to Brendan Purcell, MS!

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:14:50 +0000

Congratulations to Brendan Purcell, MS! Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/21/2019 - 10:14

Brendan Purcell graduated with the M.S. degree in 2019. His work was in collaboration with Prof. Ashlynn Stillwell at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and partially funded by a Water-Energy Nexus seed grant at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research developed a framework for calculating the downstream effects of proposed uses of reclaimed water, studying multiple case studies and regulatory contexts. A journal article on this work is currently under revision. According to Brendan,

I'm very happy I decided to attend ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� to study water resources engineering. Coming from the east coast, going to school in Colorado has given me a new appreciation of the importance of water in addition to the technical skills and critical thinking required to succeed in any job going forward.

He is currently working at Golder Associates, in their Lakewood, CO office, working on power plant and civil engineering projects.

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Congratulations to MS graduate Elliot Alexander!

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:55:32 +0000

Congratulations to MS graduate Elliot Alexander! Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/21/2019 - 09:55

In Summer 2018, Elliot Alexander graduated with his Master of Science degree in Hydrology, Water Resources & Environmental Fluid Mechanics within Civil Engineering. Elliot's Master's research, co-advised with Dr. Edith Zagona, focused on generating and identifying robust Lake Mead reservoir operating policies. In this research, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) was coupled with the Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS) RiverWare model to generate and evaluate thousands of new operating policies for Lake Mead. The MOEA-generated policies were then re-simulated across multiple future water supply and water demand scenarios testing each policy’s performance across a wide range of plausible future uncertainty. This research identified multiple robust operating policies through applying a robustness analysis to the set of MOEA-generated policies. Our research team is currently adapting the findings from Elliot's research into a journal article, and the work is ongoing. Elliot had the following quote about his time at CU:

My time at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� was an invaluable experience where I sharped my analytical and technical skills to become a more confident engineer. The friends and connections that I made during my graduate studies have opened career opportunities and helped me land the job I currently have.

After graduation, Elliot has been working as a Hydrologic Engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation and is currently on assignment at the Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) in Boulder, Colorado. Elliot's present work activities at the Bureau of Reclamation includes, continuing to explore long-term operating policies in the Colorado River Basin using a MOEA, performing hydrologic and salinity analysis using the CRSS RiverWare model, and assisting in the consumptive uses and losses reporting for the Upper Colorado River Basin.

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New Project: Integrative Reengineering of Infrastructure for Tomorrow's Communities

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 13:56:50 +0000

New Project: Integrative Reengineering of Infrastructure for Tomorrow's Communities Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/19/2018 - 07:56

Prof. Kasprzyk is a collaborator on a new Graduate Assistantships in Areas of National Need (GAANN) PhD fellowship program, titled "Integrative Reengineering of Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s Communities". This project aims to increase the number of graduate students and, eventually, researchers and teachers, who have the multidisciplinary skills to address (i) the country’s deteriorating infrastructure and (ii) the need for upgraded and new transport, water/sanitation, building, and power infrastructure.

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