Basin-wide knowledge exchange for the sustainable management of the Colorado River

ABSTRACT

The Colorado River is facing a crisis resulting from demands that have outstripped diminishing supplies, exacerbated by a severe multi-decadal drought and the effects of climate change. As participants directly involved in recent agreements seeking to address this challenge, we describe how a critical basin-wide lens has been developed through information transparency, including the evolution and voluntary exchange of computational models. To achieve greater sustainability, further resolve and commitment from water managers in the United States and Mexico is necessary to ensure the required enhancement of the knowledge systems that will be used to inform extremely difficult and critical decisions.

KEYWORDS:

• Colorado River
• models
• transboundary
• negotiation
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

Kevin Wheeler has provided consulting services for the United States Bureau of Reclamation, State of Colorado, Central Arizona Project, Environmental Defense Fund, Pacific Institute, Western Resource Advocates, and Utah State University. Terrance Fulp served from 2012 until 2020 as the Regional Director of the Lower Colorado Region for the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Roberto F. Salmon Castelo served from 2009 until 2020 as the Mexican Commissioner for the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Oxford Martin School Programme on Transboundary Resource Management.