Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO)

Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) is a proposed management strategy that uses data from watershed monitoring and modern weather and water forecasting to help water managers selectively retain or release water from reservoirs in a manner that reflects current and forecasted conditions.

FIRO is being developed and tested as a collaborative effort focused on Lake Mendocino that engages experts in civil engineering, hydrology, meteorology, biology, economics, and climate from several federal, state, and local agencies, universities, and others, including but not limited to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, California Department of Water Resources, Sonoma County Water Agency, and the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

The goal of FIRO is to develop, demonstrate, and implement tools and science that enable more effective management of reservoirs by leveraging improvements in weather and water forecasts. FIRO creates a natural linkage between research, applications, technology, reservoir operations and water control manuals to enable continuous improvement based on state-of-the-science.