Excerpts: The objective of this cooperative study is to address the water resource problems and opportunities found in individual irrigation systems and to develop alternatives that will improve their productivity, water use efficiency and water management. The objective of this study was to address water resource problems found on the twenty three (23) individual irrigation systems throughout the basin. These systems are representative of the water resource problems throughout the basin. In-depth data for the analysis was obtained on each irrigation system from ditch company personnel, field office employees, and some farmers. The study area contains all of the North and South Platte Rivers and Republican River drainages within Colorado. Figure 1 shows the location of the study area. The Platte River drainage contains both the North and South Platte River Basins. The Republican River drainage includes the Frenchman, Arikaree, South Fork of the Arikaree, North and South Forks of the Republican, and the Smoky Hill River drainages. The total area is approximately 19,121,000 acres. Table B-1 in Appendix B shows the land use in the major basins.