Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program FY 2024 | R24AS00206

Opportunity Information: Apply for R24AS00206

The Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program FY 2024 is a Bureau of Reclamation (U.S. Department of the Interior) funding opportunity designed to improve the accuracy and usefulness of water supply forecasts by strengthening how snowpack is measured and turned into decision-ready information. Because many Western river basins depend heavily on snowpack and snowmelt runoff for annual water supply, forecasting how much water will be available months ahead is central to reservoir operations, drought response, irrigation scheduling, municipal supply planning, hydropower planning, and ecosystem management. The program targets a long-standing problem in snow hydrology: traditional snow observing networks provide high-quality measurements where instruments exist, but those stations are relatively sparse across large, complex watersheds, making it difficult to confidently scale point measurements up to basin-wide snow conditions. The program addresses that gap by encouraging applicants to deploy emerging or expanded snow monitoring approaches that can complement existing networks and ultimately improve forecast skill.

This program was authorized by Congress under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Authorization Act (P.L. 116-260, Sec. 1111) in December 2020, with authorization covering fiscal years 2022 through 2026. The FY 2024 notice of funding opportunity invites projects that demonstrate new or existing snow monitoring technologies and, importantly, show how the resulting data will be used to improve water supply forecasting. A key emphasis is not just collecting better snow data, but ensuring it is integrated into forecasting workflows and evaluated for real operational value. The Department of the Interior frames this work as part of its broader priority to address the drought crisis by equipping water managers with the best available information to manage scarce water supplies.

A defining requirement of this particular solicitation is that eligible projects must include implementation of aerial LiDAR snow surveys. In practice, this means proposals need to incorporate airborne LiDAR-based measurements that can map snow depth (and, when combined with density information or models, contribute to estimating snow water equivalent) across wide areas. The intent is to move beyond reliance on a small number of point sites and instead provide spatially continuous or spatially rich datasets that better represent how snow accumulates and melts across terrain, elevation bands, and vegetation types. Proposals are expected to show how LiDAR surveys and any complementary measurements or models will be used to produce improved basin condition estimates and translate those improvements into better seasonal or near-term water supply forecasts.

The notice strongly signals that the most competitive projects will be collaborative and operationally connected. Applicants are encouraged to build partnerships with water management and forecasting entities so that data and lessons learned do not stay confined to research outputs, but flow into actual forecasting systems and decision processes. These partnerships also help demonstrate that the project will support knowledge transfer, promote adoption of new datasets, and provide a credible evaluation of how much the new monitoring improves forecast performance and management outcomes.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued by the Bureau of Reclamation under CFDA number 15.078, and awards are made through a cooperative agreement instrument, which typically implies ongoing federal involvement during project execution compared to a standard grant. The opportunity number is R24AS00206, and the original closing date listed is May 10, 2024. The listed award ceiling is $999,999. A wide range of applicant types are eligible, including state, county, and local governments; special districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; individuals; and for-profit organizations (including small businesses). Applicants are required to submit technical proposals in a specific format and length consistent with the solicitation instructions (referenced as Section D.2.1.4 in the notice), meaning compliance with the required structure and content is a core threshold requirement in addition to the technical merits.

Overall, the program is aimed at making snow information more spatially representative and more directly usable for water supply forecasting, with aerial LiDAR snow surveys as a mandatory element and partner-driven implementation as a major competitiveness factor. The underlying goal is practical: better snow monitoring leads to better forecasts, and better forecasts lead to better, earlier, and more defensible water management decisions during increasingly volatile drought and runoff conditions.

• The Bureau of Reclamation in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program FY 2024" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.078.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-03-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-10. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $999,999.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for R24AS00206

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