Introduction

Columbia River Data Access in Real Time (DART)—a second-tier database, data repository, web-based data reporting and analysis services—provides direct,  timely, and user-defined public access to integrated Columbia Basin environmental, operational, fishery, riverine, ocean and climatic data resources for sound management of the Columbia Basin resources and hydrosystem by federal, state, tribal, public and private entities. The DART project effectively addresses the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s four tiers of implementation criteria of contribution to program success, feasibility, efficiency, and cost savings.

DART compliments and enhances services provided by other federal, state, and private entities in the region by providing an independent source of integrated public data for more effective access, consideration, analysis, and application and by providing additional analysis capabilities for evaluating water and fishery status and management actions. DART’s real-time preliminary and summary analyses provide an instant look into the current status of the resource and provide access to potential early warning triggers on a daily basis.  These services are critical to Bonneville Power Administration’s implementation of its fish and wildlife responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The services are available to Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (FWP) participants needing integration of data and can be used to implement effective monitoring and evaluation of RPAs in real-time (see list at end of Introduction section). The DART real-time analysis offerings and predictive modeling tools enhance the potential for adaptive management throughout the region.

DART strives to provide real-time data and on-line analytical processing services in accordance with the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program and 2010 Supplemental FCRPS Biological Opinion and to anticipate reporting and analysis needs of the region at large: both to illustrate status and to shed light on critical uncertainties. The current scope may be modified as needed, to address requirements of the Action Agencies implementation of NOAA Fisheries Biological Opinions federal court-directed remand of one or more biological opinions, and the regional review of information requirements and services.

Routine reporting and analysis by DART provides information on the impacts of the hydrosystem on fish passage. Historical, real-time, and predictive passage statistics provide resources for managing the hydrosystem in relation to migrating and resident stocks. The real-time analysis and modeling tools facilitate adaptive management for fish passage. In addition, the program presents a comprehensive description of fish passage including: pre-season analyses of the impacts of potential hydrosystem operations on migrants; real-time in-season analysis and predictions of smolt migration rate, survival, and transportation; real-time in-season analysis and predictions of adult upstream run size and migration timing; and post-season assessment of the performance of the pre-season and in-season predictions. Summary statistics, trends, reach and system survivals, migration patterns, and exposure indices are monitored on a daily basis throughout the year and provide status measures for numerous stocks. DART also reports stream flows, ocean conditions, and long-term climate trends. Specialized data aggregation and queries provide passage, travel time, and survival information on the ESA listed PIT-tagged stocks.

Specific hydrosystem and fish passage analyses provided by DART include:
Juvenile and adult migration status monitoring within the hydrosystem corridor providing reach-specific and system-level passage migration timing and survival information for ESA-listed and non-ESA species;
Monitoring and reporting detailed status of juvenile and adult ESA listed stock migrations based on DART data aggregations of PTAGIS data;
Reach conversion rates for adult salmonid stocks based on PTAGIS data;
Tributary status and trend monitoring of juvenile and adult ESA-listed and non-ESA stocks based on PTAGIS data;
Detail and summary statistics and analysis of PTAGIS data for juveniles and adults;
Detail and summary statistics and analysis of SMP data;
In-season real-time run predictions for juvenile and adult stocks with an annual review of run-timing predictions;
Reports of migrant exposure to environmental conditions.

DART supports regional efficiency, collaboration, and cost savings through numerous relationships with other BPA funded projects and regional entities. DART is the primary publicly accessible repository for a number of projects in the region including the Adult Anadromous Fish Radiotelemetry Project (1996-2004), the cooperative Mid Columbia Status for Juvenile and Adult Salmon, and adult passage counts from Chelan and Grant County PUDs as well as the Tumwater and Zosel dams.

Through regional cooperation with numerous federal, state, tribal, and private entities, DART provides support for monitoring and evaluation of scientific research efforts, implementation plans, and FWP biological objectives; access to spatially and temporally integrated biological and environmental data; and integration and free exchange of information. The first list documents the major relationships DART maintains with other BPA funded projects (BPA Project Title and Project Number provided where available) and regional entities. The second list documents RPAs to which DART real-time analysis offerings for status and trend monitoring efforts apply.

Regional cooperation:

Monitoring and Evaluation Statistical Support for Life-Cycle Studies, Project# 1991-051-00
DART Services: Provide raw data, technical support services, database services, and web access to the statistical tools and RM&E analyses produced by this project.
Products: Analyses produced by this project include: Adult Escapement, PIT Tag Survival and Travel Time Analysis, Coded-Wire-Tag Smolt-to-Adult Ratios, adult count adjustor rates, and predictions of smolt outmigration timing.

Statistical Support for Salmon, Project# 1989-107-00
DART Services: Collaborate with project to maintain and enhance the Survival and Travel Time Estimates program.
Products: Publicly accessible online analysis tool to generate survival and travel time estimates of user-defined PIT-tagged populations.

Modeling and Evaluation Support/CRiSP, Project# 1989-108-00
DART Services: Provide raw data, technical support services, database services, and web access to analyses produced by this project.
Products: Analyses produced by this project include: predictions of smolt outmigration timing, transportation percentages, adult upstream migration timing, and water quality conditions.


Yakama Klickitat Fisheries Management, Data and Habitat, Project# 1988-120-25
DART Services: Maintain an ODBC connection to project database and provide synchronized reporting of the YKFP adult passage data.
Products: Publicly accessible reporting of adult passage data from the YKFP.

PTAGIS, Project# 1990-080-00
DART Services: Collaborate with project to define data file formats for daily data transfer and provide data quality feedback to PTAGIS and Tag Coordinators. Based on NMFS Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) definitions, DART defines stock composition and aggregates PIT-tagged releases and observations for daily monitoring of ESA stocks. DART also applies a detailed analysis filter of PTAGIS observation to assign detections to specific life stages.
Products: Publicly accessible comprehensive reporting and analysis tools for PTAGIS dataset, including survival, travel time, passage predictions, adult conversion rates, historical run-timing, and ESU stock-specific analyses and reports.

Smolt Monitoring, Project# 1987-127-00
DART Services: Provide raw data and web access to the datasets provided by this project.
Products: Publicly accessible reporting of Smolt Indices, Hatchery Releases, and Transportation datasets integrated with river conditions and other datasets.

Design and Conduct Monitoring and Evaluation Associated with Re-establishment of Okanogan Basin Natural Production, Project# 2003-022-00
DART Services: Provide raw data and web access to the datasets provided by this Colville Confederated Tribes, Fish and Wildlife Department project.
Products: Publicly accessible reporting of Okanogan Basin screw traps collected counts and Zosel Dam enumerated adult passage datasets integrated with river conditions and other datasets.

Monitor Reproduction in Wenatchee River Basin, Project# 2003-039-00
DART Services: Provide raw data and web access to the datasets provided by this Washington Fish and Wildlife Department project.
Products: Publicly accessible reporting of Wenatchee Basin screw traps collected counts and Tumwater Dam enumerated adult passage datasets integrated with river conditions and other datasets.

Mid-Columbia Agencies
DART Services: Provide database services, technical support services, and web access to Mid-Columbia screw trap collected counts from Chelan PUD, Douglas PUD, Grant PUD, USACE, USFWS, USGS, Washington State Department of Ecology, WDFW, Colville Tribes, and Yakama Nation.
Products: Support and facilitate collaboration of multiple agencies in the Mid-Columbia River region to integrate juvenile and adult salmon information with river conditions for improved management of these stocks. Publicly accessible reporting and analysis tools for Mid-Columbia smolt passage and adult passage datasets integrated with river conditions.

Chelan County PUD, Douglas County PUD, and Grant County PUD
DART Services: Provide database services, technical support services, and web services to Mid-Columbia PUDs. Adult passage data is provided directly to DART by the PUDs.
Products: Publicly accessible reporting and analysis tools for Mid-Columbia adult passage data for Wells, Rocky Reach, Rock Island, Priest Rapids, and Wanapum dams.

PIT Tag Instream Steering Committee (PTISC)
DART Services: Collaborate with PTISC to define and develop reporting and analysis tools for data from the PIT Tag Instream detectors installed throughout the Columbia Basin. DART also applies a detailed analysis filter of PTAGIS observation to assign detections to specific life stages.
Products: Publicly accessible comprehensive reporting and analysis tools for PIT Tag Instream detectors dataset from PTAGIS.

NOAA COMPASS Regional Juvenile Salmon Passage Model Project
DART Services: Provide database services and technical support services to the COMPASS Project, a regional work group coordinated by NOAA to develop a Columbia Basin smolt passage model that replaced the SIMPAS model. Assist in parameter development to extend the COMPASS model beyond the Columbia and Snake Mainstem projects
Products: Integrated datasets of survival, travel-time and environmental conditions for statistical modeling and calibration. Technical support to NOAA hydrosystem scenario analyses for the Columbia-Snake Basin Biological Opinions.

Northwest Power and Conservation Council
DART Services: Provide source data and generate daily reports on reservoir elevations and river flow at Columbia Basin dams as requested by the NPCC.
Products: Daily reports of elevations for major U.S. reservoirs and river flow at key Lower Snake and Columbia dams for inclusion in the NPCC’s Power Supply Outlook Update.

Energy NewsData
DART Services: Provide source data and generate daily reports of fish runs for Columbia Basin dams as requested by Energy NewsData.
Products: Daily reports of fish runs at key Lower Snake and Columbia dams for inclusion in the Energy NewsData’s Northwest FishWeb.

BiOp RPAs:

RPA 50.2 Monitor adult returns at mainstem hydro dams
RPA 50.3 Monitor juvenile fish migrations at mainstem hydro dams
RPA 50.4 Fund pilot studies in Wenatchee/Methow/Entiat
RPA 50.5 Provide additional status monitoring of SR B-Run Steelhead populations
RPA 51 Collaboration Regarding Fish Population Status Monitoring
RPA 52.2 Monitor and evaluate juvenile salmonid system survival
RPA 52.3 Monitor and evaluate adult salmonid system survival
RPA 52.7 Coordinate w/ NOAA, US v Oregon parties, Colvilles, & others
RPA 53.4 Monitor/enumerate adult salmonids passing thru FCRPS fishways
RPA 54.7 Evaluate environmental conditions’ impact on juvenile fish survival
RPA 55.2 Analyze post_BON mortality due to arrival timing/transport
RPA 55.4 Investigate key characteristics of Snake River Fall Chinook early life history
RPA 56.3 Develop strategy for habitat status/trend monitoring for ESA fish
RPA 61.1 Define the importance of tidal freshwater/estuary/plume/nearshore conditions
RPA 71.6 Coordinating implementation with other regional collaboration processes
RPA 72 Data Management