| dc.description.abstract | In the south Asian countries of Pakistan, India and Tibet, a considerable portion of population is directly related to agriculture. Water is the essential element for both urban and rural use. In these areas reservoirs are key-stones in the management of water resources and of major importance for the provision of a wide range of services such as irrigation, drinking water supply, flood control and hydropower production. On one hand the establishment of new reservoirs might affect the water availability positively, as they store water from the wet to the dry season and secure adequate access to water all year around. On the other hand, establishment of reservoirs might increase the total evaporation of water to the atmosphere and enable downstream users larger volumes of withdrawals and increasing the consumption. Finding the balance between the trade-offs of these two effects is a delicate management task. Acknowledging the fact that climate change, population growth, economic development, increased needs for food production (irrigation) will put additional pressure on the available water resources (Bates et al., 2008), a careful design, operation and management of the infrastructure to store and distribute water is a major challenge and responsibility of water managers.
The increasing population growth, industrial and agricultural activities have increased consumption of water resources. In future, the issues might increase with the increasing impacts of climate change. These types of modeling studies can be beneficial for developing strategies against potential problems for sustainable water resource management. In this study WEAP (Water Evaluation and Planning System) was used for modeling of Sutlej river basin. The main objectives are to collect available data, prepare the data needed for carrying out modelling study, then configure WEAP as the analytical tool and simulate effects of reservoirs on seasonal flows and propose a set of mitigation actions to enhance the water security in the lower parts of basin.
In the data scarce focused region of this study, observed and modelled data from various sources and techniques is compiled and integrated in order to create a hydrological model and estimate the flow characteristics of the Sutlej River Basin. The benchmark ratings for the model’s performance indicated acceptable results. Modelled results revealed that reservoirs can have a beneficial effect during low and high flow periods on the lower part of the basin. The possible future developments could help in stabilizing the flow and meeting the water demand through-out the year. It is the first model made on the complete length of the Sutlej basin including areas from Tibetan plateau, northern India and Pakistan. | |
