Water Availability

Introduction

Knowledge of the spatial and temporal distribution of water resources availability is a key component in local, regional and national economic development and a vital and underlying component of water resources planning. Hence, as part of a comprehensive water management, a component of WRQ is devoted to quantifying  water resources availability.

Water for drinking and irrigation is supplied from different sources such as surface water, ground water, rain water, etc. Often, water of different sources is mixed to meet the required water demand. Conjunctive water use refers to simultaneous use of groundwater and surface water to meet water demand. Where groundwater is contaminated, surface water could be used either to entirely replace or supplement the groundwater to dilute its concentration.

The objectives of this module are to:

• Quantify water resources availability of all water balance components such as: blue water (river discharge plus deep aquifer recharge), green water storage (soil moisture), green water flow (evapotranspiration), and base flow (component of aquifer feeding river)

• Compute long-term spatial and temporal distribution of water resources availability so as to be used in water management planning

• Provide the necessary information for conjunctive water use analysis

• Provide the tools necessary for hydrologic modelling and conjunctive water use optimisation

Click here for an introduction to some of the tools used for modelling water resources