Water Reservoir Data and Visualization Tools for the Southern Great Plains

During the 2011-2012 Southern Plains drought, meetings with drought managers and planners at regional drought assessment forums and during drought management webinars revealed that numerous user groups desired easily accessible information describing current and historical reservoir levels across the region. Unfortunately, reservoir level information at the time was housed in many disparate places and managed by a number of agencies, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, US Bureau of Reclamation, river basin management authorities, and others. As a result, the region was lacking a unified source of accessible reservoir data. Many websites that provide reservoir status lacked historical data, or at least an easy, visual way to compare across time.The Water Reservoir Data Visualization Tool was publicly released on October 26, 2015. The tool has been decommissioned as many state water agencies now regularly post reservoir information.