We just published a new paper where we contrast the direct use of snow related information in a free model fashion with perfect streamflow forecasts in the operation of Lake Como, a snow-dominated system operated for flood control and water supply.

The results of our research show that using the available observational data capturing slow dynamic processes, particularly the snow melting process, produces a 10% improvement in the system performance. This latter represents the lower bound of the potential improvement, which may increase to the upper limit of 40% in case skillful (perfect) long-term streamflow forecasts are used. More info HERE.

S. Denaro, D. Anghileri, M. Giuliani, A. Castelletti, Informing the operations of water reservoirs over multiple temporal scales by direct use of hydro-meteorological data, Advances in Water Resources, 103, 51-63, doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.02.012, 2017