AWWA ACE60045

Tampa Bay Water, Florida's largest wholesale water supplier, together with its member governments, supplies approximately 240 million gallons per day (mgd) of potable water to nearly two million people in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Beginning in 2003, Tampa Bay Water's groundwater sources were reduced due to environmental impacts and regulatory constraints, and replaced with surface water and desalted water. Since 1998 Tampa Bay Water's Board has authorized $1.25 billion for infrastructure investment to support environmental recovery. Tampa Bay Water determined that a decision support system (DSS) would improve its decision-making effectiveness as new, diverse water sources were placed into operation. Tampa Bay Water's DSS is a custom-developed user-interface (referred to as the DSS Manager) which provides access into the agency's enterprise database, allowing users to query data, extract data, conduct analysis on the data, and generate reports and provides access to certain models which are used in source forecasting and optimization. Immediate benefits to Tampa Bay Water include: increasing the agency's efficiency in operating the new supply sources; enhance effective management of Tampa Bay Water's complex water supply/resource systems; improve the agency's data collection, storage, and retrieval process to maximize environmental and cost benefits; facilitate regulatory compliance; and, provide for consistent and uniform decision-making in a complex and dynamic water supply environment. During a two-year period, Tampa Bay Water conducted a Needs and Assessment Study (Phase I), completed the development of several large-scale applications as well as implemented a redesign of its enterprise database (Phase II implementation). Phase I identified and prioritized 14 requirements that represent new or enhanced water supply functions essential to the agency. Alternatives were defined to meet these 14 requirements and a Phase II implementation plan developed. This paper discusses the approach used to develop the agency's DSS, lessons learned during the development and implementation of this DSS by Tampa Bay Water, and use of this approach in meeting operational and planning supply management objectives. Includes 2 references, figures.