TY - JOUR T1 - Innovative operational seasonal water supply forecasting technologies JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 15A LP - 17A DO - 10.2489/jswc.64.1.15A VL - 64 IS - 1 AU - Tom R. Perkins AU - Thomas C. Pagano AU - David C. Garen Y1 - 2009/01/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/64/1/15A.abstract N2 - Today's Western United States is home to nearly one-third of the American population. The region has experienced rapid population growth in recent years. Continued urban growth, combined with economic changes and federal environmental mandates, are exerting increased pressure on the Western United States' irrigated agriculture. Serving these competing uses, in the face of uncertain and extreme weather, can be difficult. Managers of a fixed water supply must operate their projects within an ever-shrinking margin of error (Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission 1998). Improved water supply technologies and products will help resource managers to improve water use efficiencies wherever possible. This article describes some of the recent advances by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in its mission to support Western US water managers. HISTORY OF WATER SUPPLY FORECASTING TECHNOLOGIES About 100 years ago, Dr. James Church, a professor of the Classics at the University of Nevada, Reno, pioneered snow survey measurements and water supply forecasting in the Western United States. In 1910, using a simple seasonal percentage technique, he was able to relate the water content in the snowpack on Mt. Rose to the spring rise in the Lake Tahoe water level (Church 1917). His early… ER -