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Spring-Run Juvenile Production Estimate (SR JPE)

Client

California Department of Water Resources

Project Categories

Bringing Salmon Science Together

Protecting spring-run Chinook salmon requires a clear understanding of how many juveniles are expected to enter the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta each migration season. Yet the monitoring data needed to produce that estimate comes from programs with different objectives, methods, and reporting practices. Through the Spring Run Juvenile Production Estimate (SR JPE) Program, FlowWest is helping bring this information together to support timely, credible science and informed water management.

Connecting People, Data, and Technology

FlowWest is designing and implementing an integrated data management system that connects more than 40 monitoring datasets and genetics laboratory results. Working closely with field crews, geneticists, and fisheries scientists, the team builds a shared understanding of how data is collected, what it means, and how it can be used together. This collaboration informs common data standards, quality controls, and a tablet application that streamlines field data entry. Together, these efforts reduce manual processing and strengthen the trust and shared responsibility essential to collaborative science. This is critical foundation for developing models to forecast the timing and number of juveniles entering the Delta, and FlowWest has an integral role in model development. FlowWest is working to document model code making it reproducible and transparent. This means that the science supporting the JPE is open and accessible facilitating collaboration and reducing barriers to access.

Shared Knowledge, Stronger Management

The system is designed to support near real-time, automated updates to the juvenile production estimate, giving managers more timely information about young salmon entering the Delta. By making data easier to find, access, combine, and reuse, FlowWest is helping agencies build a shared scientific foundation for decisions affecting water operations and salmon protection. The project also offers a practical model for connecting people and technology across monitoring programs, strengthening the partnerships needed to manage changing ecosystems.

The Team

Ashley Vizek, Project Manager; Jordan Hoang, DataTackle Software Development Lead; Emanuel Rodriguez, Genetics Data Management System Development Lead; Liz Stebbins, Fisheries Modeling