Decision Support System for Integrated Reservoir Management in India – Need, Concept and Framework

Abstract

Typical goals of water resources managers include maximizing the benefit due to use of water for municipal and industrial uses, crop and energy production, recreation, environmental and ecological improvement; and minimizing the negative impacts such as flood, water logging, water quality degradation, land submergence and population displacement. Sometimes, the decision making becomes difficult while achieving multiple objectives. A Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a tool intended to provide timely, valid, and sufficient information to the decision makers for solving relatively large and unstructured management problems. Integrated reservoir management can be best achieved by having a system to support the process of decision making. Such a DSS may consist of the modules for database handling, simulation, optimization, and statistical analysis, and capabilities for analyzing and displaying the results in a unique and user-friendly framework. This paper presents a framework for the development of a DSS for integrated reservoir management. The paper advocates that the design, development, and implementation of effective DSS brings together disciplines, people, and institutions necessary to address today’s complex water resources challenges.