Bahir Dar University

Intitute of Technology
School of Civil and Water Resources Engineering

Water Resources Systems

Planning and Management

Course intructor Mulugeta Azeze

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 Learning Objectives
To familiarize students with:
 Basics of Water resources systems planning and
management;
 The approaches applied in water resources
systems planning and management;
 Water resources systems modeling and analysis
techniques and tools;
 reservoir sizing and opration techniques;
 Concept of river bain planning.

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 Course Contents
I. Introduction
II. Concepts of systems and systems approach
III. Economic considerations in water resources
systems
IV. System analysis Techniques
– Optimization
• Linear programming
• Dynamic programming
– Simulation
– Multi-objective analysis
V. Reservoir sizing & operation
VI. Introduction to River Basin Planning
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 References
1. Loucks, D.P. and Eelco van Beek (2005). Water
resources systems planning and management:
An introduction to methods, models and
applications., UNESCO.
2. Mays, L.W. and Tung, Y.K. (1992). Hydrosystems
engineering and management., McGraw Hill,
USA.
3. Simonovic, S.P. (2009). Managing water
resources: Methods and tools for a systems
approach, UNESCOpublishing, France.
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 References (contd...)
4. Jain, S.K. and Singh V. P. (2003). Water Resources
Systems Planning and Management, Elsevier.
5. Hiller, F.S. and Lieberman, G.J. (2005). Introduction
to Operations Research, The McGraw Hill
Companies, Inc., New York.
6. Nathan Buras. (1975). Scientific allocation of Water
Resources, Elsevier.
7. Any other related books and websites can also be
refered.
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 I. Introduction
What is water resource?
A water resource can be defined as any aspect of water
that has value or which is exploited by the user to get a
certain benefit.

A benefit is any tangible or intangible output that is

valued or desired by producers or individuals.

The different aspects of a water resource of interest are

its quantity and quality, potential energy, flow depth,
surface area, aesthetic value, waste assimilating
capacity, its biological productivity, etc.
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Some Facts About water and its use
• Water covers nearly three-fourths of the earth's surface.
• The earth's total allotment of water has a volume:
– 97.5% is sea water
– Only 2.5% of the total water is
fresh water.
• Fresh water is a renewable resources
and unevenly distributed over the Glob.
• It provides wide range of habitats
for a significant proportion of the
world's plant and animal species
– More than half of the world’s animal
and plant species live in an aquatic
environment.

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• Water resources are special. In their natural states they are beautiful.
People like to live and vacation near rivers, lakes and coasts.
• Water is also powerful. It can erode rock, alter existing landscapes and
form new ones.
• Life on this planet depends on water.
– Most of our economic activities consume water.
– All of the food we grow, process and eat requires water.
– Much of our waste is transported and assimilated by water.
• Agricultural water use accounts for about 70% of total global
consumption, mainly through crop irrigation, while industrial use accounts
for about 20%, and the remaining 10% is used for domestic purposes.
• The production of 1 kilogram of:
– rice requires 3,000 litres of water
– maize requires 900 litres of water
– wheat requires 1,350 litres of water
– beef requires 16,000 litres of water
• The production of 1 litre of milk requires 1,000 litres of water 8
• The importance of water to our wellbeing is beyond
question. Our dependence on water will last forever.

So, what is the problem?

The answer is simply that water is not distributed as we

might wish. There is often too much or too little, or
what exists is too polluted or too expensive.
 It is estimated that two out of every three people
will live in water-stressed areas by the year 2025.
In Africa alone, it is estimated that 25 countries
will be experiencing water stress (below 1,700
m3 per capita per year) by 2025.

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10
Inadequate access to water forms a central part of peoples poverty, affecting
their basic needs, health, food security and basic livelihoods. Improving the
access of poor people to water has the potential to make a major contribution
towards poverty eradication.
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Total and Per capita availability of Blue water or
renewable fresh water

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 Water Related Overall Problems

i. Resources under pressure

ii. Populations under water stress
iii. The impact of pollution
iv. Water governance crisis

These have increased local, national, and international

tensions for water use and sharing.

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Increasing demand

 Freshwater resources are under increasing

pressure;
 Drivers or underlying causes:
 Population Growth;
 Increased economic activity (industry & energy);
 Improved standard of living;
 increased environmental pollution;
 climate change;

 increased competition for, and conflicts over, the

limited freshwater resource.
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• Population increased from about 5.3 billion in 1992 to about 7.0 billion today;
• Demand for water has increased dramatically resulting from increased wealth
and increased demand for food and energy;

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Water stress index

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 So, Why Plan, Why Develop, Why
Manage?
• Too little water
• Too much water
• Too dirty water
• Degradation of Aquatic Ecosystems
• Other Planning and Management Issues
– Navigation
– Reservoir related issues

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Too dirty

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 What is Planning?
• Planning was defined by Weiss and Beard (1971) as the
process by which the society directs its activities to
achieve goals it regards as important. Strategies for
achieving a desired set of goals;
• Planning is a process, a systematic way of investigating
a problem. It is both an art and a science, an exercise in
managing information, acquiring information,
evaluating it, and analyzing it and then making
decisions;
• Planning is about the future. The future is
fundamentally uncertain. Planning has to address this
uncertainty.
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 Planning Involves

• Players - individuals, agencies, businesses

communities, state and federal
government
• Processes - identification of goals,
alternatives, trade offs, additions

• Products - a traditional report, modeling

environments, dynamic structure

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Water Resources Planning
 Water resources planning and management is concerned
with modifying the time and space availability of water for
various purposes so as to accomplish certain basic national,
regional and local objectives.
 Objective of WRPM: to provide the supplies of
water in accordance with the temporal and spatial
distribution of demands through river regulation
and distribution systems.
 It has to reflect a paradigm of uncertainty about
the future. This is usually addressed using scenarios.

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Water Resources Planning
 Water resources problems are Complex,
interconnected, and overlapping Involving water
allocations, economic development, and
environmental preservation.

 Water resources problems have scientific, technical,

political (institutional) and social dimensions.

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Water Resources planning and management
involves:

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 Classification of water resources
Based on their occurrence water resources are
classified as Surface water and Groundwater
 Surface water, generally, lakes, reservoir,
streams and rivers, is water that is open to
the atmosphere and feeds by runoff from
the surface.
 Water which is found beneath the land
surface in the saturated zone is referred to
as ground water.
• An aquifer is a saturated geologic formation
which can give significant amount of water to well.
 Blue & Green Water - perspective
Precipitation – the basic water
resource

GW

GW
GW

GW

GW

Adapted from: GWP (M. Falkenmark), 2003, Water Management and Ecosystems: Living with Change
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 Blue & Green Water – Pathways

percentages

Consumptive water use by terrestrial ecosystems as seen in a global perspective. (Falkenmark in SIWI Seminar 2001).

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 Water Resources Development and
Water resources Management
• WRD: all we want to do and are able to do to improve
the beneficial use of water for human society;
 Physical activities to improve the beneficial use of water for
different uses.
• WRM: Water Resources Management
– includes development
– but also planning, operation, monitoring, etc
Definitions from Ethiopia water
management policy

Conventionally water resources management applies to the

management of blue water i.e. to management of surface
and groundwater.
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 Ethiopia's Water Resources
• Ethiopia has 12 River basins
• annual surface runoff from these basis is
estimated as 122Bm3
 (Abbay 43%, Baro Akobo 19%)
(Abbay and Baro-Akobo contribute 62%)
 Omo-Ghibe 15%
 Abay, Baro Akobo, and Omo Ghibe accounts for
about 77% of the total surface water of the country
 The Remaining is in other River Basins
• Groundwater Potential of the country is
8/20/2019
estimated around 2.6BM3? 28
29
 0.26

7.6

52.6
4.6

23.6
17.9 4.6

5.8

8/20/2019 30
 Scenarios

Planning is about the future. The future is fundamentally

highly uncertain and that management responses need
to be robust to various alternative pathways (with no
indication of probability of occurrence) within the
domain of possible futures.
Both supply and demand are uncertain.
A scenario is simply defined as possible future.
Scenarios are fundamentally very important in WRP.

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Examples of scenario variables are:
 climate change,
 demographic trend and change, and
economic growth.

Scenario planning helps to identify a range of dramatically

different future conditions with an unknown likelihood of
occurring.

Scenario planning is built on thorough analysis of future

possibilities, combined with the knowledge and insight of
individuals who know and understand the basin.

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What Makes Water Resources Planning Unique?

• Significant impacts
• High potential for conflict
• Resource availability uncertain but in continuous
increasing demand
• Technical and political concerns
• Divergent interests

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 What Do WR Plans Consider?

It has to consider the various uses of water

Navigation Economics
Flood Protection Health & Safety
Power Production Future Development
Irrigation Aesthetics
Water Quality Recreation
Water Supply Habitat

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Who Has a Stake In Water Planning?

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Who Has a Stake In Water Planning?
The Public

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 Who Has a Stake In Water Planning?

• Agriculture
• Power Producers
• Ecosystems and Fish
• Industry
• Navigation Interests
• Recreationalists

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Water resources planning and management
concerns
 How can these renewable, yet finite resources best be
managed and used in efficient, equitable and sustainable
manner?
 How can this be accomplished in an environment of
uncertain supplies and uncertain and increasing
demands?, and
 How can conflicts among individuals having
different interests in the management of a river and
its basin is managed?

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 WRPM Overriding criteria for
Economic efficiency in water use: Because of the increasing scarcity
of water and financial resources, water must be used with
maximum possible efficiency;

• Equity: The basic right for all people to have access to water of
adequate quantity and quality for the sustenance of human
wellbeing must be recognized;

• Environmental and ecological sustainability: The present use of

the resource should be managed in a way that does not undermine
the life-support system thereby compromising use by future
generations of the same resource.

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 Sustainability
• do what is needed now, but without
compromising the needs of future
generations
• sustainability = trade-off
– now versus later
– economy versus environmental quality

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Water resources management involves influencing and
improving the interaction of three interdependent
subsystems:

• The natural river subsystem in which the physical,

chemical and biological processes are take place.
• The socio-economic subsystem, which includes the
human activities related to the use of the natural river
system.
• The adiminstrative and institutional subsystem in
which decisions and planning and management
processes take palce.

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System components, planning and
sustainability of WRSPM

AIS

NRS SEC

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 impacts socio-
natural demands economic
system system
water
resources
management
laws,
regulations,
infrastructure management

institutional
system
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Context for WR planning: Interactions among subsystems and
between them and their subsystems

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• The NRS incorporates the supply side of the system
(resource base)
– The streams, rivers, lakes and their embankments and
bottoms, and the ground water aquifer canals,
reservoirs, dams, weirs, sluices, wells, pumping plants
and wastewater treatment plants the water itself,
including its physical, chemical and biological
components
• the SES incorporates the demand side.
– water-using and water-related human activities.
• The management of both the supply and the
demand sides is provided by the AIS.
– the system of administration, legislation and regulation,

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 NRS: Natural River System
• System of rivers, lakes, groundwater aquifers, canals,
embankments, etc. and all related man-made
infrastructure
– Abiotic (or physical) characteristics
– Chemical characteristics
– Biological characteristics (aquatic, terristrial, wetland)
• Boundaries can be defined clearly

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 SES: Socio-economic system
• Water using and water related human
activities
– agriculture and fisheries
– public and industrial water supply
– navigation
– recreation and nature conservation
– power production (hydropower and cooling)
– transport of pollutants and heat
– etc.
• Boundaries can not be defined clearly

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AIS: Administrative and Institutional System

• The system of administration, legislation and

regulation, including the authorities
responsible for the management of the WRS
and implementation of laws and regulation
– central, regional and local
– co-ordinating bodies
– stakeholder organisations

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 Institutional Aspects
• WRD and WRM needs an enabling environment
– good national, and local policies
– good legislation
– good institutions
• Involvement of government is crucial
– water is a resources without property rights
– water requires sometimes large investments
– water is an easy medium to transfer external effects

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Who Creates Water Resource
Plans?

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Who Creates Water Resource Plans ?

• Federal and State Government Agencies

• Regional Water Authorities
• Local communities, Municipalities and
Utilities

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 WRP
 Government’s plan to develop water resources:
– improvement in national or regional welfare,
– increase in national income,
– national self-sufficiency
– preservation of the quality of the environment.

 Objective of WRPM: to provide the supplies of

water in accordance with the temporal and
spatial distribution of demands through river
regulation and distribution systems.
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 WR Planning and Management Approaches
• Top Down
– professional dominated
– will strongly depend on technological and economic
analysis tools
– requires acceptance of stakeholders of decisions and
actions
• Bottom Up
– active stakeholder participation
– will increase probability of successful implementation
– does not necessarily lead to best solution (e.g. expensive)
– needs also high level technological and economic analysis
support (with easy user access)
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 Definitions
• Policy goal: Where do we want to go ?
• Strategy: How do we think to get there ?
• Measures / interventions: part of a strategy
– technical measures
– ecological measures
– managerial (operational) measures
– economic (incentive) measures
– institutional measures

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 Measures
• Technical (structural) measures
– canals, pumping stations, fish stairs, ...
• Managerial measures
– (daily) operation of reservoirs, gates, weirs, etc.
• Economic incentives
– charges, taxes, fines, subsidies, ...
• Regulation (managerial) measures
– permits, land-use zoning, ...
• Institutional arrangements
– defining tasks and responsibilities, capacity building,
...
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 Planning for WRM Involves
• What has not been achieved yet and why not?
– Problem statement
• What do you want to achieve?
– Objective
• How can we measure in how far we have achieved
that objective?
– Criteria
• What can we do to improve the situation?
– Measures
• Which institutions and stakeholders are involved in
implementing these measures 56
WRD
 Some WRD projects;
1. Surface storages: reservoirs, natural lakes with control
outflows
2. Channalization: canals (irrigation, navigation, drainage,
dykes, and erosion control measures
3. Diversion of water: inter-basin water transfer
4. Waste treatment
5. Ground water extraction and artificial recharge

 WRD – the problem is often complex and has multiplicity

of goals and alternatives

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Essential steps in WRPM:
– Define the problem.
– Identify the system, define its elements, and gather
relevant data.
– Define the system objectives and constraints.
– Generate feasible alternatives that satisfy physical,
social, political, economic and legal constraints on
the system and its management.
– Evaluate the alternatives for attaining system
objectives and identify the most suitable among
them.

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 Challenges of WRPM
• Demand
– Population growth
– Competing needs (human, energy, industry, food,
environment)
– Pollution
• Availability
– Variability
– Climate change
– Pollution
• Extreme events
– Floods
– Droughts
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 The challenge of WRPM

To strike a balance between the use of the resources as a basis for livelihood
and the protection and conservation of the resource to sustain its functions and
characteristics
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A general Analytical framework for water resources
planning studies

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Integrated water Resources Management
(IWRM)
Water resources of a river basin are interrelated
• u/s and d/s users
• Quantity and quality
• GW and surface water
Integrated approaches in the planning and
management of projects is needed to maximize
overall basin wide benefit.
In the past, economic criteria: B/C ratio was used.
But the social and environmental issues should
also be addressed.
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 Dublin principles - 1992
• Water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to
sustain life, development and environment
• Water developments and management should be based on a
participatory approach, involving users, planners and
policy makers at all levels
• Women play a central part in the provision, management
and safeguarding of water
• Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and
should be recognised as an economic (but also social)
good

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 Definition of IWRM

IWRM is a process which

promotes the co-ordinated
development and
management of water, land
and related resources, in
order to maximise the
resultant economic and social
welfare in an equitable
manner without
compromising the
sustainability of vital
ecosystems.

(GWP, 2000)

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IWRM

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 Role of Hydraulic Engineer in WRD projects
• WRD and WRM have become an inter-
disciplinary activity
– NRS: engineers, hydrologists, hydrogeologists, etc.
– SES: agronomist, soil-scientists, process-engineers,
economists etc.
– AIS: economists, sociologists, institutional experts,
etc.
• Position of Water Resources engineer
depends on your own attitude:
– if you just like engineering: stay specialist and
contribute to the overall WRD and WRM process
– if you like to integrate: take the lead in the overall
WRD and WRM process
• but expect a strong competition of economists 66
 Assignment #1
1. Describe very briefly Ethiopia´s water
resources and discuss the challenges in
planning and managing it for improving the
national welfare and livelihood Situations?
Please notethat the challenges in all the
three subsystmes have to be addressed.

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