Reservoir Storage Reallocation Analysis with PC

Abstract

Reallocation of storage may increase a reservoir's capability to satisfy municipal and industrial water‐supply demands. The reallocation, however, simultaneously may decrease the reservoir's capability to satisfy competing demands. I developed a PC‐based reservoir‐operation simulator to provide information about such trade‐offs. The simulator accounts for: (1) Gain and loss of water in the reservoir; (2) gain and loss of water between the reservoir and a downstream demand point and (3) loss of water at the downstream point. The user controls the sequence of data preparation and simulation with a set of menus. The user “fills in the blanks” in data‐entry screens to define system characteristics, storage allocation, and hydrologic inputs. I designed the output specifically for the PC, and included the capability to write files that may be read by spreadsheet and graphical‐display programs. This state‐of‐the‐art interface expedites the edit‐simulate‐evaluate cycle, permitting the civil engineer to search for solutions to water‐use problems, rather than for solutions to computer‐use problems.