The recurring cycles of extreme weather in California, increase in water demand, limited capacity of the reservoirs and overexploitation of aquifers, causes significant challenges for the management of the already under pressure water resources of the region. The tradeoff between many objectives such as managing flood risk, water supply and environmental flow requirements makes it crucial to explore more flexible management alternatives, such as forecast informed reservoir operation (FIRO), and Flood water managed aquifer recharge (Flood-MAR). In this study a hydro-economic simulation model is developed for Folsom reservoir watershed in order to evaluate the feasibility of alternative operation policies such as Flood-MAR and FIRO. A surrogate economic assessment module was developed to assess the economic impact of changing operation polices by evaluating different components such hydropower production and groundwater recharge. This module was then integrated with a validated reservoir simulation model and a surrogate groundwater recharge model and used to assess the feasibility of incorporating Flood-MAR into operation of Folsom reservoir by transferring water through Folsom South Canal during the flood season to recharge the downstream aquifers. The model results shows that there is significant potential benefit in incorporating Flood-MAR without having any adverse effect on flood risk, water supply and downstream delta flow requirements. This model will also run as a forecast based model to assess the potential of incorporating inflow forecasts into operation of Folsom.
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