Decision Support System for Sustainable and Adaptive Management of Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake is a large, deep-storage reservoir located in the White River Basin in northwestern Arkansas and is considered a primary watershed of concern in Arkansas. As such, information is needed to assess water quality, especially nutrient enrichment, nutrient-algal relations, turbidity, and sediment issues within the system. A previously calibrated two-dimensional, laterally averaged model of hydrodynamics and water quality was used for the evaluation of changes in input nutrient and sediment concentrations on the water quality of the reservoir for the period of April 2001 to April 2003.

Photo of Beaver Lake diagnostic system instrument.

A decision support system is being developed for Beaver Lake integrating real-time monitoring programs and continuous updated databases, numerical models, and visualization tools to help resource managers develop short-term strategies and long-term management objectives within the frame work of sustaining reservoir function through adaptive management applications. The purpose of this study is to develop a real-time decision-support system for sustainable and adaptive management of Beaver Lake.

The decision support system will consist of four broad components:

1. Lake diagnostic systems to measure environmental reservoir response,
2. Models to predict the response to environmental forcing of the physical, chemical, and biological system, in real-time;
3. Optimization methodology that considers the constraints on the system in order to maximize the short- (management) and long-term (planning) sustainability; and
4. A decision support system to automate and adaptively manage the process.

Development of self-learning decision-support systems for managing reservoir functions to this point has focused on ensuring that each component is built on the best available scientific knowledge. The vision for this project is to combine these components in such a way as to take full advantage of the synergies existing between the various components, and to develop a revolutionary methodology of managing Beaver Lake.

Publications
	Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5302 Application of a Two-Dimensional Reservoir Water-Quality Model of Beaver Lake, Arkansas, for the Evaluation of Simulated Changes in Input Water Quality, 2001-2003, by Joel M. Galloway and W. Reed Green
	Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5003 Analysis of Ambient Conditions and Simulation of Hydrodynamics and Water-Quality Characteristics in Beaver Lake, Arkansas, 2001 through 2003, by Joel M. Galloway and W. Reed Green