Article Published in the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering

January 28, 2025
The Authority, with support from Precision Water Resources Engineering and Follum Hydrologic Solutions, is developing a Utah Colorado River Accounting and Forecasting (UCRAF) model for select basins in Utah. Pilot efforts first began in the Duchesne River Basin in 2022 and expanded to the Price and San Rafael River Basins in 2023. UCRAF is a drought mitigation planning tool that helps provide a comprehensive understanding of current water rights and use, and ultimately allows the Authority to understand how drought mitigation measures (e.g., crop types, irrigation methods, water reduction methods, water right transfers, etc.) affect water availability and water rights within a basin.

UCRAF consists of two separate models—a Diversion Runoff Calculator (DRC) and a RiverWare model—and relies on several input datasets. Recently, the project team collaborated to prepare a journal article documenting the assumptions, input data, and application of the DRC component of the UCRAF model. The article is titled “Development of the Diversion Runoff Calculator to Estimate Agricultural Water Consumption and Irrigation Diversions at the Field- to Basin-Scale in Northeastern Utah” and was published in the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering.

Click here to read the article.

For questions, please contact Betsy Morgan at [email protected].