Developed at the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington under contract with the US Department of Energy through the Bonneville Power Administration and under the watchful eye of its Principal Investigator James Anderson, the model describes in detail fish movement, survival, and the effects of various river operations on these factors. It provides managers with an interactive tool to evaluate effects of individual operation strategies on juvenile salmon survival. It rapidly calculates and clearly displays in color graphics the influences of varying hatchery release dates, reservoir levels, water flow rates and other factors. Incorporating the entire river system, the model predicts how many fish could make it to the Pacific.
The model has advanced programming features including: a graphical interface to access and change model variables and equations in real time, a flexible data structure that allows expansion of the model framework while assuring backwards compatibility with earlier model versions, an ability to reconfigure to a different river without reprogramming, and an on-line help tool.
The underlying philosophy for developing the model was to define the model inputs in terms of parameters the river managers actually deal with. For example, large amounts of water are diverted from the Columbia for irrigation. Instead of entering the rate of water withdrawal from the river as an input variable, someone running the model enters the number of acres under cultivation, a temperature distribution and the crop types. From those variables the model would determine how much water would be required. Managers do not control the amount of water; they control the amount of acreage.