Multipurpose reservoir management and river network modelling

This paper reports the results achieved by modelling the river network on the basis of the “nodes and links” criterion and by applying simulation algorithms to big basins water resources management. The adopted methodology differentiates from other papers that can be found in literature, in terms of an initial balance between the Total Available Volume and the Total Requirement Volume, that allows for running a simulation not only on a single time-step (week or month), but on a set of periods of time representing the critical phase of the management. Moreover, the management policies have been carefully examined according to three kind of procedures: proportional allocation, percentage allocation and priority allocation. In this way the choice of what kind of management to simulate becomes extremely flexible, resulting in a model that easily suits the numerous variables of different nature which influence the management choices. All these efforts have been made with the purpose to study and develop a suitable and useful aid to decisions in the field of water reservoir management on a basin scale.