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The Colorado River's two largest reservoirs are drawing down because releases exceed inflows and releases adapt to reservoir elevations instead of elevation and inflow triggers. To help slow reservoir drawdown and sustain target elevations, we introduced a new rule that adapted basin depletions to available water. We simulated inflow-based operations and validated existing operations in a new open-source exploratory model for the Colorado River Basin. We developed the exploratory model to more easily adapt Upper and Lower Basin depletions to available water, reduce run time, and lower costs to use compared to the proprietary RiverWare Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS) model. We simulated adaptive and existing operations for (a) the 2000 to 2018 period, and (b) scenarios of steady Lees Ferry natural inflow each year of 17.3 down to 6.2 billion cubic meters (bcm, or 14 to 5 million acre-feet, maf) per year. We found the following: (1) the existing rules drew down Lake Powell and Lake Mead to their critical storages of 7.4 bcm (6.0 maf) in less than 5 years when Lees Ferry natural flow was less than 15.3 bcm/year (12.4 maf/year; 2000 to 2018 period average). (2) The adaptive rule sustained both reservoirs above their critical levels for long periods of time by requiring Upper and Lower Basin users to conserve up to 1.2 bcm (1.0 maf) per year more water than existing operations. We see next steps as testing the adaptive rule in CRSS and devising conservation programs that can adapt and scale to available water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed a sharp rise of cashless transactions not only in the developed countries but also in many of the developing countries. Markets are in a transition phase, from grocery stores, hyper markets to electronic markets. Use of plastic cards, online shopping and electronic payments are gathering momentum. Governments are also becoming hi-tech by introducing online facilities to their citizens. In coordination with other institutions, governments have been moving from cash-based to a cashless system in order to increase efficiency and decrease costs. This has lead to the idea of a futuristic, cashless society. It took a considerable amount of time to start and move towards this cashless society. Initially, it was not a substantial success but ultimately it has emerged. Now, it is progressing because of the worldwide internet availability with user-friendly software and hardware. This paper is an attempt to understand the theoretical concept of a cashless society with the help of its SWOT analysis. Although cashless transactions have numerous advantages, the journey towards a cashless society is not free of obstacles. An empirical study was carried out in the Sultanate of Oman to identify the relationships of some of the predictors, such as Easy, Fast, Secure, and Benefit with dependent variable Use of cashless instruments. Results after Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) show that Easy, Secure, and Benefits of cashless instruments are significant predictors but fast, is not a significant predictor of the Use of cashless instruments, at 0.1 significance level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]