Progress 07/01/08 to 06/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The objective of this project is to provide at least three generic spreadsheets to address the priority spreadsheets needs of mutual ditch and reservoir companies in Colorado. These spreadsheets will allow ditch and reservoir companies to better manage the water they deliver to irrigated agriculture. All project tasks have been accomplished. The assessment of needs was accomplished through meetings and discussions with John McKenzie, the project's external collaborator and the Executive Director of the Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance (DARCA), through email to all DARCA members soliticiting suggestions, through the announcement to all DARCA members for the DARCA training course on Spreadsheet Techniques for Ditch Companies, and through a presentation made to the Ditch and Reservoir Operators Workshop, held March 9, 2009, in Greeley, Colorado. A number of suggestions were received. The majority of the suggestions related to processing data and three examples were selected for implementation. Ditch and reservoir companies are increasingly using information from data loggers and information on water related websites, such as the Colorado Department of Water Resources. The companies are processing this data and then creating required reports for their organizations and the State. The three developed spreadsheet applications all relate to this general process. The spreadsheet applications were developed through discussion with users about a specific situation. For example the first spreadsheet developed in this project involved working with staff of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District in Greeley, Colorado. A spreadsheet was developed to help the user solve their problem and then this spreadsheet was generalized as much as possible. These initial versions of the spreadsheets were presented at the DARCA Spreadsheet Techniques for Ditch Companies training course on March 19-20, 2009, at Colorado State University. The final version of the spreadsheets were presented at the Water Monitoring and Control Technology Field Day, June 12, 2009, at Merino, CO. The developed spreadsheets will also be presented as part of an EXCEL training course to be held at the Second Joint Federal Interagency Conference, to be held in Las Vegas, NV, June 27- July 1, 2010. The spreadsheets and associated training material for their use are available on the web at http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~fontane/AES The project proposal also included the use of the developed spreadsheet tools in classes in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. During the Spring 2009 semester, these spreadsheet tools were used in the CIVE 203 Engineering Systems and Decision Analysis undergraduate course and the CIVE 546 Water Resources Systems Analysis graduate course. PARTICIPANTS: External Collaborator: John McKenzie Executive Director Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance 1630A 30th St., #431 Boulder, CO 80301 (970) 412-1960 john.mckenzie@darca.org TARGET AUDIENCES: Staff of mutual irrigation or ditch and reservoir companies in Colorado. Also undergraduate and graduate university students. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The impacts of this project can be divided into three main areas. The primary impact is potentially significant time savings for staff of ditch and reservoir companies that are processing information to satisfy reporting requirements. As an example, the staff of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District were spending a significant amount of staff time in summarizing information from data loggers. To summarize the required information from a single data logger file with approximately a week's worth of data was taking from 30 minutes to one hour. That time has been reduced to less than 1 minute. They were extremely pleased with the spreadsheet tools that were developed. The application for the South Platte Ditch Company also reduced the manual processing of multiple data logger files from hours to less than 1 minute. In addition to a dramatic reduction in the time required to accomplish the task, it must be emphasized that the potential errors from manually processing the data were eliminated. The second impact is the potential to increase collaboration among the ditch and reservoir companies, the vendors of data logging equipment, agencies posting on-line information and the agencies requiring reports. For example, during the Water Monitoring and Control Technology Field Day excellent discussion developed between the users and the vendors of the data logging equipment about the type of summary information that could be produced by the data loggers. For example, the data loggers used by the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District were producing daily summaries from midnight to midnight. However, the district needed to report the daily summaries from 8:00 am to 8:00 am. This is the reason a fairly complex spreadsheet tool needed to be developed. If instead the data loggers can be re-programmed (as vendors indicate they can be) to produce the desired daily summary information for the desired time period, a much simpler spreadsheet tool can be used to provide the desired information. The same issue can be addressed for information being provided on websites. Perhaps small changes in the way data is organized can result is improved efficiencies of its use. Finally including the reporting agencies in this collaboration can lead to more efficient approaches to gathering and summarized the desired information. Perhaps new development in web-based technologies can lead to a new paradigm for collecting and sharing this information. The third impact is the potential educational benefits to students and workshop participants that are exposed to these spreadsheet tools. During the presentations made to ditch and reservoir companies, it was clear that users were under-estimating what they could expect spreadsheets to do for them. Being able to see what can be done really broadens the perspective of the user and they can begin to expect more from their spreadsheet tools. Teaching the students how to develop these tools will create future employees who are able to help organizations improve their computing technologies. Making these resources available on the web will allow other organizations to benefit from this work.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Problem Statement: Mutual ditch and reservoir companies use spreadsheets extensively in the management and accounting of their irrigation water. Unfortunately these companies often lack the personnel and resources to adequately develop these spreadsheet tools. The objective is to provide at least three generic spreadsheets to address the priority spreadsheets needs of mutual ditch and reservoir companies in Colorado. These spreadsheets will allow ditch and reservoir companies to better manage the water they deliver to irrigated agriculture. General Description of the Study: Mutual irrigation or ditch and reservoir companies are the most common organizations delivering water to irrigated agriculture in Colorado. Mutual ditch companies typically hold the water rights and farmers gain the right to use water through ownership of capital stock in the company. Allocating the water to farmers is not a simple task. Companies must be involved in such tasks as water accounting, forecasting available water, and valuation of water for augmentation or leases. The primary target of this research is the mutual ditch and reservoir companies that are members of the Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance (DARCA) was formed in 2001. The project work will be accomplished using the following tasks: 1) Assessment of Needs; 2) Selection of Priority Spreadsheets; 3) Spreadsheet Development; and 4) Development of Training Materials. Accomplishments: The first two tasks have been accomplished. The assessment of needs was accomplished through meetings and discussions with John McKenzie, the project's external collaborator and the Executive Director of DARCA, through email to all DARCA members soliticiting suggestions, and through the announcement to all DARCA members for the DARCA training course on Spreadsheet Techniques for Ditch Companies. A number of suggestions were received and to date three have been selected for initial implementation. The suggestions included spreadsheets to help manage different ownership of water and spreadsheets to better integrate with GIS spatial location databases. These initial spreadsheets will be presented at the DARCA Spreadsheet Techniques for Ditch Companies training course on March 19-20, 2009. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
At this stage of the project it is not appropriate to evaluate the impacts since the products (spreadsheets) have not yet been developed.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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