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Video by Christopher Kieffer

Power of ERDC podcast Ep. #19: Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center

Aug. 16, 2022 | 51:21

Dr. Cary Talbot from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and Dr. Marty Ralph from the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) talk about Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) during an August 16, 2022 episode of the Power of ERDC podcast. Talbot is a division chief at ERDC's Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory and FIRO program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ralph is director of CW3E at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. FIRO uses modern weather and streamflow forecasting to better inform water management decisions, allowing water managers to be as precise and efficient as possible in carefully balancing flood risk management, water supply and environmental needs. Talbot and Ralph talk about atmospheric rivers (4:19) and how better water management in the West depends on better understanding these unique storms (8:00), how the FIRO effort has improved weather forecasting skill in the West (6:53) and the nation (11:11), and how these improved forecasts will enable better water management (18:11). They also discuss how ERDC came to be involved in FIRO (13:01), how the effort has been strengthened by its many partnerships (19:42), and efforts to expand this methodology throughout the nation (31:03). The Power of ERDC podcast is a behind-the-scenes look at ERDC’s involvement in solving some of the nation’s toughest engineering challenges.