In conjunction with the WSWC Summer Meetings in Polson, Montana, on Wednesday morning, August 3, from 8:30-10:45 am, WaDE staff invited WSWC members, particularly state engineers and other state water rights administrators, to participate in a demonstration and feedback workshop on our Western States Water Data Access and Analysis Tool (WestDAAT). Virtual participation will also be possible should you or your staff be unable to participate in person.
The intent of the workshop was to familiarize members and others with the tool and encourage hands-on practice with possible applications. The workshop is designed to test WestDAAT capabilities and dashboard query tools for water rights data covering WSWC states. How could WestDAAT help each state in its water rights permitting and water resources planning functions?
The WestDAAT dashboard prototype culminates a 10-year WaDE effort, working with WSWC member states to streamline access to water rights data, and it will be publicly released in March 2023. At present, over 1.4 million water rights across 2.7 million Points of Diversion and Places of Use and related attributes of those rights (metadata) are available via WestDAAT. More data will be stored and accessible as it becomes available.
Some of the questions WestDAAT might help water right administrators address include the following:
- What junior water rights are there above a particular senior point of diversion?
- In the case of a “call,” which water users should be notified?
- What water rights might be affected by a proposed change in the point of diversion or change in the place of use?
- In order to protect flows leased or otherwise dedicated to downstream uses, which water users/water right holders may need to be notified to temporarily forego diversions (shepherding conserved water downstream to a specific reservoir or another point)?
- How do other western states regulate water use and to what beneficial uses?
- What beneficial uses are recognized by other western states?
- How other western states have progressed in adjudicating their water rights based on the legal status of rights?
- What metadata is associated with the water right?
Report
Coming soon.
