Engineering Approach to Assessing the Vulnerability of Water Abstraction

Abstract

Variability in stream flow/discharge results in serious problems for engineers and difficulties in characterizing water systems under future climatic conditions. The management of water security in the engineering domain requires approaches aimed at minimizing the detrimental effects of the hydrological behavior of natural systems. Abstraction facilities must be strengthened to ensure sustainable supply and water security over time and at different scales. Several approaches and methodologies have been developed to translate water security into a framework that provides information on how to improve it. In this study, a scalar range idea is used to evaluate the sensitivity of a water resource system and cause–effect linkages define the vulnerability indicator as management-relevant information to address water security. This intuitively relates the extreme deviations of a particular streamflow to the average system response related to a particular hazard indicator. This determines the current stress in the operation of the abstraction facilities based on historical hydrometeorological changes, which is the basis for assessing future operational conditions and risks. This study uses streamflow extremes and averages as hazard-relevant indicators of water supply security. The results of the two case studies show that the applied approach fully appreciates the internal properties of water resource systems that affect the sensitivity/vulnerability of streamflow, as well as the derived streamflow vulnerability index and function. The obtained results were used to assess the vulnerability of water intake as well as the choice of safety factors and design parameters in accordance with the forecasted average annual and seasonal climate factors.