Comparing efficiency of water distributions in heuristic and optimised ordering systems: A case study in Goulburn river system
Date
2012
Authors
Chen, J.
Penton, D.J.
Dutta, D.P.
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Conference paper
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Proceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2012, 2012, pp.899-906
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34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2012 (19 Nov 2012 - 22 Nov 2012 : Sydney, Australia)
Abstract
Policy-makers face planning challenges such as deciding whether to build reservoirs or choosing how to distribute water to irrigators and the environment. They rely on advice from planners who compare scenarios with river models that they run over the recorded (and/or forecasted or generated) flows. Planners and modellers compose the river models in specialist software. This paper defines the ordering problem as the problem of determining how to release water from reservoirs to meet downstream demands. This paper compares algorithms for solving the ordering problem in a complex regulated environment. Linear programming, especially fast network flow mathematical solvers, have been extensively applied in water resource management software and tools for ordering such as REALM, which is used widely in Victoria. Rules-based approaches, which are essentially heuristic ordering systems, have also been widely applied. For example, most Queensland and New South Wales models are built in IQQM, which applies rules-based methods for ordering. The eWater CRC has recently developed eWater Source software, which provides both ordering systems. Consequently, it allows an easy comparison of the efficiency of water distribution solutions. In a case study in the Goulburn catchment of Victoria, using a simplified river system model, this paper compares the efficiency of water distribution from NetLP based ordering with a rules-based ordering method. The comparison of efficiency is based on overall shortfall percentages, and total water released but not extracted by demand centres, which reflects both the short-term (single time step) and long-term (multiple time step) efficiency. REALM's network linear programming algorithms are also compared with the results of those from NetLP ordering in eWater Source. Given the many limitations of the analysis, this paper found that eWater Source can achieve relatively higher efficiency than REALM in the case study.
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Copyright 2012 Engineers Australia