Immersive Modeling of Water Banking Elicits Local Knowledge to Get More Water to Great Salt Lake

Purpose

The purpose of this immersive online collaborative model is to give collaborators the opportunity to explore, pick at, and possibly improve water banking strategies to get more water to the declining Great Salt Lake (GSL). There are five roles in this immersive model: three agricultural users, one urban user, and the bank. During a model session, collaborators immerse in and personify water user roles for a water bank in Cache Valley, UT (collaborators often play roles different than themselves).
Each collaborator articulates a strategy for their user to consume and bank water. Over the course of a model session, collaborators can adapt their strategies in response to their available water, others’ choices, and the real-time discussion of choices. Through the model sessions and discussions, we want to learn:

• Why do people decide to consume, conserve, bank, and deliver water within the immersive modeling environments? • Which new insights do participants take away from a model session? • Which improvements do they suggest in modeling and in implementation? • How can an immersive online collaborative modeling approach support the adoption of water banking including delivering water to GSL?

Requirements

Session Guide: 1 person to download the model file, move the file into Google Sheets, invite collaborators, and guide model use during the session.

Number of People: 2 or more (Session Guide may also personify a user role).

Time: 1.5 to 2 hours.

Required Software: Session Guide has a Google Account.

Directions to Guide a Model Session

1-Download the Excel model file CacheValleyWaterBank.xlsx

2-Move the Excel file to your Google Drive. Open as a Google Sheet.

3-Duplicate the Model Worksheet to save a blank version for later use.

4-Invite 1 or more other people to join the Google Sheet.

5-In the upper right of the Google Sheet, click the Share button.

6-Add emails and set permissions so players can access the Google Sheet. Or copy and share the sheet's URL.

7-Copy and share the sheet's URL.

8-Review additional directions on the worksheet labeled Directions.

Setup

The Model Worksheet is organized as follows: 1- In Rows 4 to 12, collaborators choose a water role to immerse in and then articulate a strategy for that user. 2- Rows 14 to 20 specify model assumptions. 3- Rows 22 to 160 represent the components of a seasonal water budget for a water bank -- Starting storage, Inflow, User dashboards where collaborators choose crop type and acreage that define consuptive use, water volume to lease to/lease from the bank, prices, and end of year summaries of trades, water held by the water bank, reservoir storage, and water delivered to GSL. Note: most of the rows (53 to 124) are the user dashboards. 4- Columns C, D, E, and F represent years.

A- Select User role and Strategy (Rows 4 to 12).

1- On the Model Worksheet, scroll down Column A. The directions are given in Blue text.

a) Rows 4-12, Collaborators select a User role (Column C). A user role groups multiple canal companies into different tiers based on their proximity, main source of water / water rights, and water use. If fewer than 5 collaborators in a session, collaborators can select to play multiple user roles.

b) Articulate and enter the User's strategy that is their main goal for water use (Column D).

c) Rows 14 to 20 specify reservoir assumptions. Use the default values or modify.

B- Choose Water Inflow Data (Row 32)

2- Move to Row 32.

3- Participants jointly decide the percentile flow for the first year and enter this value in Cell C32. Low percentiles (e.g, 10%) represent dry years (e.g., 10% of historical flows were below the value). High percentiles (e.g., 85%) represent wet years (e.g., 85% of years had a flow less than the value, or 15% of years saw a flow greater than the value).

4- Once a percentile flow is selected, the rest of the entries in Column C will populate.

C) Water Allocation - Based on Historic Average Use (Rows 33 to 51)

5- Model allocates water to users based on historic average water diverted form the source.

D) User dashboards - Each user decides the volume of water to consume, bank, and trade, including price (Rows 53 to 115)

6- The first row of a user's dashboard shows the water available to the user in the current year (e.g., Rows 55, 67, 79, etc. for Users A, B, C, etc.) 7- For agricultural users, the collaborator selects the crop type and acreage and enters these values in the next two rows(e.g., Rows 56 and 57 for User A, 68 and 69 for User B). 8- Next, the model calculates each user's required water for their crop choice and acreage and volume to buy/sell to zero out their account at the yeas end (e.g., Rows 58 and 59 for User A, Rows 70 and 71 for User B . 9- The user and bank negotiate a price to buy/sell water and enter that value in next row (e.g, Row 60 for User A, Row 72 for User B, etc.). Positive values represent the User sells to the bank. Negative values indicate the bank sells to the User. 10- The model calculates the user's end-of-year balance, total compensation from water trades, returns on crop production and net returns which is the sum of compensation from trades and returns on crop production (e.g., Rows 61 to 64 for User A, Rows 73 to 76 for User B, etc). 11- Rows 132 to 136 summarize the bank's transactions for the year. 12- Rows 138 to 144 summarize the year's available water, reservoir capacity, spill, and combined end-of-year reservoir storage. 13- Next, collaborators together decide the percent of end-of-year storage to release to Great Salt Lake. They enter the percentage in Row 145. 14- The remaining rows 146 to 160 calculate the water delivered to GSL, end of year active reservoir storage, total storage, and reservoir elevations. 15- Notes: a) The bank cannot have storage less than the combined dead pool storage of the two reservoirs. When the reservoirs are at dead pool, the active storage is zero. Person playing the role of bank, refer to Row 151 and 152 to make sure that active storage remains well above zero and never is negative. b) If a cell is highlighted red, this means the cell has a negative value which is not feasible. Go back and change the volume of water traded or the consumptive use.

16- Move back to Row 32 in the next column and select a new inflow percentile to play another round for next year (e.g., Cell D32 for second year).

Requested Citation

Akbar, H., D. E. Rosenberg (2025). Immersive Modeling of Water Banking Elicits Local Knowledge to Get More Water to Great Salt Lake, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/c9614e389e324b7ba92d5c33247504a1

Contact Information

Hadia Akbar, Utah State University, hadia.akbar@usu.edu

David Rosenberg, Utah State University, david.rosenberg@usu.edu, 435-797-8689.