An Interactive Management System for Operational Control of Kirazdere Reservoir (Turkey)

Abstract

This article presents a prototype, user-interactive computing system for the operational management of the Kirazdere reservoir in Turkey. The aim is to make best use of the full storage capacity of the reservoir for meeting the contractual water-supply obligations as consistently as possible, having regard to the possible risk of downstream flooding. In determining the amount to be released for supply purposes in any one month, the system takes account of the current storage level and predicted inflow. In doing so, the system incorporates the prevailing situation with water-release rules previously derived using a combination of optimisation and simulation-based scenarios analyses, thereby providing a comprehensive analytical capability which is easy to manipulate. For each month, the system provides the operator with a proposed release schedule as well as the opportunity to explore the consequences of alternatives, in terms of the reservoir performance criteria. An important feature of the system is the ability to quickly evaluate a priori, the impacts of different release decisions over an extended period of time for a variety of possible inflow scenarios, including extreme drought and flood periods, helping the operator to establish the robustness of a particular operating policy. Whilst the system has been specifically designed to support the operation of the Kirazdere reservoir, its extension to include a more general class of reservoir management problems would be comparatively simple.