Have you ever wondered how to use CDSS software for a specific purpose? This page is envisioned to be a collecting point for information, as a precursor to a more fully-featured forum, wiki, or other tool. Also refer to the "Examples and Tests" and "Gallery" pages for each software product.
Question: Why isn't all the CDSS software available on this site? Answer: Software access is being enabled on this site as ongoing maintenance and testing work occurs. Some software receives more frequent attention than others.
Question: Why would I need to use CDSS software? Answer: CDSS software is useful for modeling water demand, supply, and allocation of supply. The State of Colorado has invested in Colorado's Decision Support Systems (CDSS) to help understand water resources within Colorado. In many cases, the baseline data sets and other CDSS products are sufficient as data resources; however, there may be cases where data sets need to be modified for a different purpose. In such cases, it is likely that CDSS software will be utilized. Some software, such as TSTool, can be used in a more general way to access, view, and process data, independent of CDSS models.
Question: How do I get started using CDSS software? Answer: The CDSS website (http://cdss.state.co.us) provides a wealth of information including data (such as spatial data layers), model data sets and documentation, software manuals, and other information. Unfortunately, understanding and simulating water resources in Colorado is complicated. A reasonable approach might be to start with the model data set documentation and then proceed to download the data set files themselves and the software for viewing and recreating the data sets. Refer to the training materials for each software program to understand its operation.
Question: Are CDSS tools restricted to use in Colorado? Answer: Although CDSS software has been developed primarily for use in Colorado and the software conventions lean towards Colorado conventions and data, the software is being applied outside of Colorado. Doing so requires using other input data and data processing steps must be modified appropriately. Sometimes software enhancements are needed, which is one reason for this site.