Eelco van Beek

Water Resource Systems Planning and Management

This 2005 version has been superseded by the 2017 edition, available in full here: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/48159

Urban Water Systems

“Today, a simple turn of the tap provides clean water—a precious resource. Engineering advances in managing this resource—with water treatment, supply, and distribution systems—changed urban life profoundly in the 20th century, virtually eliminating waterborne diseases in developed nations, and providing clean and abundant water for communities, farms, and industries.” So states the US National Academy of Engineering on its selection of water supply systems to be among the top five greatest achievements of engineering in the twentieth century. But providing everyone with clean tap water, especially in urban areas, has yet to be achieved, even in developed nations. The world’s population is growing by about 80 million people per year, and is predicted to approach 10 billion by 2050. Over 50% of people on our planet today live in urban areas and that percentage will grow. As populations continually move to cities for improved economic opportunities and a higher standard of living and as cities merge to form megacities, the design and management of water becomes an increasingly important part of integrated urban infrastructure planning and management.

Models for Identifying and Evaluating Alternatives

Water resources systems are characterized by multiple interdependent components that together produce multiple economic, environmental, ecological, and social impacts.

Project Planning: Putting It All Together

Water resources planning and management issues are rarely simple. Projects focused on addressing and finding solutions to these issues are also rarely simple. These projects too need to be planned and executed in ways that will maximize their likelihood of success, i.e., will lead to useful results. When decision-makers and other stakeholders disagree over what they want, and what they consider useful and helpful, the challenge facing project planners and managers is even more challenging.

Water Resources Planning and Management: An Overview

Water resource systems have benefited both people and their economies for many centuries. The services provided by such systems are multiple. Yet in many regions of the world they are not able to meet even basic drinking water and sanitation needs. Nor can many of these water resource systems support and maintain resilient biodiverse ecosystems. Typical causes include inappropriate, inadequate and/or degraded infrastructure, excessive withdrawals of river flows, pollution from industrial and agricultural activities, eutrophication resulting from nutrient loadings, salinization from irrigation return flows, infestations of exotic plant and animals, excessive fish harvesting, flood plain and habitat alteration from development activities, and changes in water and sediment flow regimes.

An Introduction to Optimization Models and Methods

Water resource systems are characterized by multiple interdependent components that together produce multiple economic, environmental, ecological, and social impacts. As discussed in the previous chapter, planners and managers working toward improving the design and performance of these complex systems must identify and evaluate alternative designs and operating policies, comparing their predicted performance with desired goals or objectives. Typically, this identification and evaluation process is accomplished with the aid of optimization and simulation models. While optimization methods are designed to provide preferred values of system design and operating policy variables—values that will lead to the highest levels of system performance—they are often used to eliminate the clearly inferior options. Using optimization for a preliminary screening followed by more detailed and accurate simulation is the primary way we have, short of actually building physical models, of estimating effective system designs and operating policies. This chapter introduces and illustrates the art of optimization model development and use in analyzing water resources systems. The models and methods introduced in this chapter are extended in subsequent chapters.

System Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis

The usefulness of any model is in part dependent on the accuracy and reliability of its output data. Yet, because all models are abstractions of reality, and because precise input data are rarely if ever available, all output values are subject to imprecision.

Water Quality Modeling and Prediction

The most fundamental human needs for water are for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene. The quality of the water used to meet these needs must pose no risk to human health.

An Introduction to Probability, Statistics, and Uncertainty

Processes that are not fully understood, and whose outcomes cannot be precisely predicted, are often called uncertain. Most of the inputs to, and processes that occur in, and outputs resulting from, water resource systems are not known with certainty.

Water Resource Systems Modeling: Its Role in Planning and Management

Planning, designing, and managing water resource systems today inevitably involve impact prediction.