MULTICRITERIA DECISION MAKING FOR MULTIRESERVOIR WATER ALLOCATION DURING SHORTAGE : A CASE STUDY OF UPPER MUN BASIN

Thongplew Kongjun; Varawoot Vudhivanich

Authors

Thongplew Kongjun Chief of Water Management & Administration Branch, O&M Division, Royal Irrigation Office Region 8, Nakhon Ratchasima
Varawoot Vudhivanich Department of Irrigation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University, Kamphaengsaen Campus Nakhon Pathom

Keywords:

Multicriteria, water allocation, water shortage, upper mun basin

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop the methodology for water allocation during the water shortage in the multipurpose-multireservoir system. The water shortage of the multireservoir system was first identified. The water allocation alternatives taken into account the profitability, equity and reliability of the multireservoir system and allowing the stakeholders involved in diagnosis and making decision for the water allocation were developed. The Upper Mun basin was selected as a case for the study. The HEC-3 was used as a tool to simulate the multireservoir system by using 25 years of inflow data and using the selected dry, normal and wet years data for the study of the water shortage. The results of simulated annual water shortage in the driest year were 17.79% and 40.03% of the water demand, occurring during July - September and December - May respectively. The - constraint linear programming was used to generate 16 optimum alternatives. The alternatives were ranked by the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on the three criteria as profitability, equity and reliability. The results indicated that the priority of water allocation criteria were ranked as profitability (41%), reliability (32.3%) and equity (26.7%). The first ranked alternative (29.38%) was the alternative which did not allow water shortage in the municipal and industrial sectors, the downstream requirements for the ecological system would lack water by 43.99% of demand (55.43 million cubic meters) and allow the yield for agriculture reducing to 56% of the maximum yield. Thus, the water allocation methodology developed in this study can help the priority setting in water allocation and define the most preferable
alternative for the concerned stakeholders.

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