Implementing integrated water resources management in the biggest
catchments of IRAN
A. Heidari,
Integrated water resources studies project manager
E. Bozorgzadeh
Water, power and soil resources planning department manager
G. Ghiasvand
GIS and RS projects manager
Iran Water and Power resources development Co (IWPC), IRAN
1. Introduction
Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is one of the
fundamental elements of sustainable development of water resources
projects. This approach is highly recommended due to high benefits despite
of very low costs in complicated catchments with enormous hydro
infrastructures such as dams, hydro power plants, water conveys and so on.
In many parts of the world, Industrial, Irrigation and domestic water
demands have grown to exceed natural supplies. Without dramatic changes
in water management, this local scarcity is going to extend to regional or
global proportion . It means that renewable water resources are not
adequate to supply all demands. Water quality management and recycling
water between different sector consumers are inevitable due to
environmental issues and scarcity of water resources. IWRM has been
emphasized in most of UN conference since 1992. In UN Conference on
environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro (1992), integration of
sectoral water plans and programs within the framework of national
economic and social policy has been considered as paramount importance
for action in the 1990s and beyond. Afterward, it has been put in the
agenda to involve all stakeholders in integrated management of water
resources and to implement IWRM for water supply and sanitation, food and
the environment in the world water forums (2000 Hague, 2002 Africa, 2003
Japan and 2006 Mexico).
Water is a critical element in sustainable development. It is a key
element in generating rural livelihoods, growing food, producing energy,
encouraging industrial and service sector growth, and ensuring the integrity
of ecosystems and the goods. Sustainable development is one the
important key in water resources development which can be achieved by
IWRM. IWRM promote the coordinated development and management of
water, land, and related resources, in order to maximize economical benefit
incorporation with environmental constrains and social welfare in an
equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital
ecosystems. Implementing an effective IWRM strategy requires a different
process than water resources planning procedure. Key differences include
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multiple sectors involving, broader focus, dynamic rather than static
framework, and strong stakeholder participation. Investigation of
implementing IWRM is carried out in the biggest catchments of IRAN and
this paper illustrates the policies, targets and the result of studies so far.
2. Case study features
Dez and Karun rivers have been located in southwest of IRAN and
accommodated most of large dams and hydro projects of the country.
Location of catchments and large dams shown in figure (1). Dez and Karun
rivers basin have an area of 59,090 km2 covering 8 provinces and several
stakeholders in the region. There are more than 16 under investigation,
construction and operation large dams and hydro power plants in which 4 of
them are under operation, 4 of them under construction and the rest under
investigation mostly in feasibility and detail design stage. Inter basin water
convey projects are mostly located in upstream catchments. Downstream
aggregation area shown figure (2) covers a total potential capacity of
500,000 hr in full development situation. The existing irrigation networks
have over 300,000 hr area and total annual water demand of 15 billion cubic
meters for two season of cultivation. At the same time, there is severe
shortage of water in adjacent basins with arid and semi - arid climate. Water
conveys from upstream of the Dez and Karun catchments is one the
possible way to fulfill water demand of adjacent basins. Location of water
conveys projects shown in figure (1). Ground water resources of the
catchments which shown in figure (3), has high capacity as substituted
surface water sources in water allocation model.
3. Components of IWRM studies
Integrated water resources management includes planning and
management of water resources, both conventional and non-conventional,
and land. This takes account of social, economic and environmental factors
and integrates surface water, groundwater and the ecosystems. It
recognizes the importance of water quality issues.
WRM study is carried out in the biggest catchments of IRAN named
Dez and Karun where accommodated most of the large dams, hydro power
plant and water convey projects.
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CheshmeLangan Tunnel
Third Tunnel
First Tunnel
Second Tunnel
Qomrud Tunnel
Beheshtabad Tunnel
Solagan Tunnel
Marbor Tunnel
Existing Inter Basin water transfer
Under construction Inter Basin water transfer
Under Study Inter Basin water transfer
Fig1. Location of dams and water convey projects in Dez and Karun
catchments
Dezful
city
Shoshtar
City
Ahwaz
city
Figure 2. location of irrigation networks in downstream of Dez and karun
river basins
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Fig 3. Groundwater aquifers in Dez and karun catechumens
2.1 GIS platform
GIS and RS are the essential elements of IWRM. Developing GIS
platform is carried out along with other parts of the project. GIS provide
comprehensive facilities for storing, retrieving, and manipulating data, which
are essential to the decision-making process. Arc GIS is the relational
database, which relates information in a tabular way so that the rules of
relational algebra can be applied, and the geographic database, which
relates information pertaining to fundamental map features such as points,
lines, and polygons. GIS platform has been developed based on .NET
technology and supporting from SQL server. Arc Objects functions have
been applied to create different applications according to the required
specification of the platform. The platform consist of 6 major parts including
1) data base, 2) modifying and drawing, 3)searching and reporting, 4)basic
analysis, 5) applied analysis and 6)cadastre. General lay out of GIS platform
shown in figure (4).
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Fig 4. GIS platform of DSS
Applied analysis is the important part of the GIS platform which
developed according to DSS requirements. This part includes 1)extracting
profiles and three dimensional view of sediment deposition based on
reservoir hydrography results, 2)finding convenient location of dam based
on the defined criteria and 3) other specific analysis in along with cadastre
analysis. Figure (5) shows some of the results of applied analysis.
Fig 5. Applied analysis capability of GIS platform
2.2 Data base
Developing data base software is evitable due to organizing and easily
accessing to data which required in the process of water resources
management. These data consist of recorded data in the recording gages
such as surface water, groundwater, quantity and quality data, as well as
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processed data of different investigation. Because of the huge number of
the data, a separate data bank has been developed in along with GIS
platform. Data base Organize, retrieve and backup data in different format
which is compatible with other parts of DSS. Data base is user friendly
software which easily used to link basic and processed data to DSS
modules. Figure (6) shows different views of the software.
Fig 6. Data bank module of DSS
2.3 Water resources planning
In the integrated planning, following targets are pursued: 1) evaluation
of negative and positive impacts of each project on the other projects and
downstream area from different aspects, 2)prioritizing and scheduling the
projects for construction, 3)assessment of mutually exclusive alternatives
and selecting the best alternative of development , 4)optimization of dam
height, hydro power capacities, spillway capacities and so on based on
costs and overall benefits of river system, 5)evaluation of water convey
projects, identifying compensation plan in downstream areas and
reengineering of under operation and construction projects as well, 6)
revising the spillways capacity based on integrated approach and imposing
the attenuation of flood in upstream reservoirs based on real time flood
forecasting system.
Identifying the water demand and prioritizing them has been carried
out in demand module for the main and adjacent basins. Estimation of Net
water demand, irrigation efficiency and generation of demand management
scenarios were the main tasks in developing of demand and consumption
module.
Groundwater potential has been investigated based on the limitation
of aquifers. Water allocation from groundwater has been considered in the
scenarios of water resources planning based on limitation and potential
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groundwater.
Simulation of river basin system including reservoirs, hydropower
plants, irrigation networks, inter basin water conveys, is carried out in multi
purposes aspect. Environmental consideration and water quality issues is
considered as constrains and obligation of system in the simulation. Various
rivers basin simulation software such as HEC5 and ARSP are applied based
on single period and multi period downstream water allocation features and
multi purpose targets. Results of down stream (DS) water regulation to meet
the irrigation demand shown in figure (7) in different feature of dams
construction. As shown in the figure, down stream water regulation
percentage is improved by changing the priority from power generation to
irrigation purpose. Cumulative install capacity and annual energy generation
shown in figure (8) for each hydro power plant separately.
95
85
83.9 84.8
82.7
79.6
D.S. Water Regulation (%)
79.3
76.9
75
76.378.2
76.0
73.7
85.1
73.4
65.7
65
High prioity for power generation
55
High priority for irrigation
45
44.8
35
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
Reseroir active volume (mcm)
Fig 7. Down stream water regulation (demand meet and runoff ratio)
35000
+Bazoft
HPP
+Khersan2
HPP
+Khersan3
HPP
30000
25000
Engery generation (Gwh)
+Rudbar
HPP
Firm
Secondry
Total energy
+Zalaki
HPP
+Liro
HPP
+Karun5
+Karun2
HPP
+UG
HPP
+Karun3
HPP
20000
+Bakhtiari
HPP
HPP
+Khersan1
HPP
+Karun4
HPP
+Majedsolyman
HPP
15000
+Karun1
HPP
10000
Dez
HPP
5000
0
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
Instal capacity (MW)
Fig 8. Cumulative power generation in under operation, construction and
investigation hydro power plants of Dez and Karun rivers system
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Scenarios of planning have been defined based on the water
resources and demand variation as well as requirements of under studies
projects. The scenarios can be categorized as follow:
1. investigating water conveys project and their impact on feature
of under downstream dams in different aspects of full operation
horizon, wet and dry periods and environmental requirements
2. Determination of hydro power economical justification thresholds
based on water abstraction volume and time delay in operation
of water convey and hydro power projects.
3. Estimation of downstream demand fulfillment and unavoidable
damages in existing situation, full development of irrigation
areas and considering environments constrains.
4. Time scheduling of project for construction based on allocated
budget in master plans, economic indexes in different
alternatives, construction period, social and political issues.
5. Determination mutually exclusive projects in parallel or conflict
targets from different point of view such as economic, social,
economic and etc, e.g. developing storage or runoff river
alternative of hydro power projects.
6. Revising designed parameters of under study dams influenced
by water conveys such as full supply level, install capacity and
plant factor, necessity of re-regulating structures and etc.
7. Investigating compensation alternative in power generation due
to upstream water abstraction such as pumping water from
downstream to upstream in existing install capacity, developed
install capacity and adoptive operation situation.
8. Scenarios of with and without under studies projects.
9. Altering targets of operation of dams such as verifying priorities
of targets in multi purposes projects.
10. Verifying crop pattern and irrigation areas.
11. Scenarios of water allocation from surface and groundwater.
2.4 Decision support system
Developing Decision Support System (DSS) is one of the major under
going parts of the study. In this part, water resources development
scenarios are generated based on the feature of projects, minimum
requirements of rivers system and necessities of the projects based on
regional demands. Then each scenario is evaluated based on multi criteria
decision making (MCDM) procedure. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM)
aims at selecting the "best" alternative from a set of alternatives which have
to satisfy multiple objectives characterized by different criteria. MCDM as a
systematic procedure for transforming complex decision problems by a
sequence of transparent steps assists the decision maker (DM) in arriving at
a rational decision. Basically, water resources management is a multi
objectives issue. In multiple objective issues, reaching a decision is a task of
weighing and balance finding between conflicting goals. MCDM is a several
steps process. Following procedure is mostly proposed to carry out MCDM:
 Establishing a model in order to describe the system structure,
its components and their interactions
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

Definition of objectives
Specification of relevant criteria to identify desired/non desired
impacts
 Creation and identification of possible alternatives
 Check of the alternatives general ability to satisfy the objectives
 Analysis of the alternatives behavior (Impact table)
 Weighing and ranking of the alternatives (preferences of the
DM) supported by a MCDM technique
Decision maker requires knowledge about consequences of the
decisions. In order to predict the behavior of the system the problem has to
be described by a model. It is a crucial task to analyze and identify the
relevant system components and their interaction, the internal structure,
dynamics as well as external interfaces and influential exogenous factors.
DSS incorporate simulation and optimization models with interactive
graphics capabilities to encourage the acceptance of these techniques in
practice. This communication is increasingly possible that interactive, userfriendly computer systems have become the rule, rather than the exception.
DSS could also assist the designer in the evaluation of reliability and the
generation of alternatives. Following capabilities of DSS are expectable in
under studies catchments:
1- GIS based modeling of water resources system
2- Accessing to data and information of river basin system
3- Generation of development scenarios in the catchments
4- Updating data in different scenarios
5- Water quantities and quality simulation
6- Social and economical assessment
7- Environmental consideration
8- Screening the scenarios based on MCDM
9- Generating output as data files or hardware signals
10- Capability of categorized access
Inter relation between the major elements of DSS shown in figure (9).
Components of Dez and Karun DSS shown in figure (10). GIS is the
platform of DSS and they are tightly coupled with each other. In the design
stage of the special DSS, following steps have been considered:
 Identifying the requirements of users and the clients
 Developing robust data base
 Developing GIS platform
 System framework design
 Conceptual design of software
 Implementing DSS in one catchement as a pilot
 Extending the pilot to whole catchments
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Fig 9. Inter relation between elements of Decision support system
Integrated water resources planning models
MCDM
Economic
Assessment
Ground
Water
allocation
Surface
Water
allocation
Water Demand
&
Consumption
Social &
Political
Consideration
Decision
Support
System
) DSS(
Land use studies based on RS
GIS
model
Environmental
Evaluation
Sustainable
development
Data Bank ِ
model
Fig 10. Components of Dez and Karun Decision support system
4. Conclusion
This paper introduces the elements of under going integrated water
resources studies for Dez an Karun rivers. Two major elements of DSS
including GIS platform and data bank have already been developed based
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on the requirement of decision support system. Other modules of DSS are
already under development. The necessities, targets and policies of each
part of DSS were clarified according to catchments specification.
Historically, water conflicts have been continuing between upper and lower
river basins mostly between upstream water conveys, hydro power
purposes and downstream irrigation development. Such conflicts have been
coordinated with concluding agreements or promoting integrated water
resources development. The conflicts Identification will be grasped by field
studies and conducting workshops with related organizations, users and
others stakeholders. Actual conditions and solutions of the conflict will be
discussed with presenting case examples on conflict management. In
addition, it will be proposed and discussed that how the coordination rules
among stakeholders will be conducted. Coordination rules, which
incorporated in the water resources management plan, will be proposed and
agreed based on compromising between the different purposes of
development and stakeholders targets.
5. References
[1] 2nd World Water Forum, Water for people, water for food, water and
nature, water in rivers, sovereignty, interbasin water education, Hague,
Netherlands, March 2000.
[2] 3rd World Water Forum, International Year of Freshwater, Japan, 2003
[3] 4th World water forums, UN department of Economic and social affairs
and global water partnership, Implementing integrated water resources
management, Mexico, March 2006.
[4] International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE),
Dublin, Ireland, January 1992
[5] United Nations Conference on
(UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, June 1992
Environment
and
Development
[6] World Summit on Sustainable development, Johannesburg
Poverty eradication, sanitation, energy, financing, integrated water
resources management, Africa 2002
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