The inclusion of operating rules in a daily reservoir simulation model to determine ecological reserve releases for river maintenance

Abstract

A component of the proposed new water law for South Africa specifies that a proportion of the natural flow regime of a river should be reserved for environmental maintenance when major water resource development schemes are planned. The quantity of water that is required for this purpose is frequently determined by an instream flow assessment workshop and a previous paper described a technique (the IFR model) that could be used to translate the workshop results into a representative time series of required flows, using climatic cues and a set of release rules. This paper addresses the issue of conflicting demands for abstractions and environmental releases from reservoirs and presents a further model (DAMIFR) that simulates the conditions in a reservoir. The IFR model generates a time series of required (or design) releases, while design and reserve abstractions are defined as parameters in the DAMIFR model. The reservoir model then uses sets of operating rules to determine the actual distribution of available water.

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