In summer of 2018, following more than a decade of demonstration efforts in collaboration with Federal, State and Local Agencies in California, the Hydrologic Research Center (HRC) and the Georgia Water Resources Institute (GWRI) of Georgia Tech completed the operational implementation of the Integrated Forecast and Reservoir Management (INFORM) system at the California Department of Water Resources.

The operational implementation of the INFORM components was done in two different platforms. The water-supply forecast component was implemented on two servers operating under a LINUX environment, while the water-management decision support component was implemented on a PC Windows 10 environment.

The users have access to both components through a secure internet configuration utilizing interactive graphical interfaces. The interface configuration was established to assist forecasters and water managers in operations pertaining to the reservoir system of Northern California. Close collaboration of the development team with the DWR Staff and the California Nevada River Forecast Center (CNRFC) Staff of the US National Weather Service (NWS), as their operational duties allowed, was the basis of the successful operational implementation.

The present implementation supports sort-, medium- and long-range ensemble forecasts and long-range planning modules.  The short- and medium-range decision modules will be activated in a second phase.