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

Purpose

The purpose of this immersive online collaborative is to give collaborators the opportunity to immerse in and personify water user roles for a water bank in Cache Valley, UT to explore water banking strategies to get more water to the declining Great Salt Lake (GSL). In a model session, each collaborator immerses in a water user role and articulate a strategy to consume and bank water for that user. There are five roles in the model, three agricultural users, one urban user, and the bank. The collaborators can adapt their strategy in response to their available water, others’ choices, and the real-time discussion of choices. Through the activity and the discussions that follow, 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

Facilitator: 1 person to setup in Google Sheets (see Setup, invite participants, and organize play).

Number of People: 2 or more (facilitator may also participate).

Time: 1.5 to 2 hours.

Software: Facilitator has a Google Account.

Facilitation Directions to Guide a Model Session

1-Download the model Excel file

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.

Setup

A- Select Participant and Strategy.

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

a) Rows 6-12, participants select a Party and enter a Strategy. A party includes water users grouped into different tiers based on their proximity and main source of water / water rights and water use. If fewer than 4 participants, participants select multiple parties.

b) A participant's strategy to play a Party is the main goal of that entity for in terms of water use.

B- Choose Water Inflow Data

2- Move to Row 32.

3- Participants jointly decide the percentile flow for respective year depending upon if participants decide it's a dry, wet or an average year.

4- Participants continue to enter values in Year 1 (Column C) to Year 4 (Column F) in each round, one year at a time.

C) Decide Water Allocation - Based on Historic Average Use

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

D) Decide Water Requirement for Each Year, Trade Water with Bank

6- Row 53 -115 - water requirement for the year is calculated based on different decisions made by the users. Based on the water allocation users deciding they want to buy or sell water to the bank, decide the price per acft and the consumptive use for that year

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 the 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.

7- Move back to Row 32 to play another round for next year.

Contact Information

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

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