IWRA Proceedings

AbstractSince adoption of Water Framework Directive in 2000, the EU activities concerning water legislation are increasingly aimed at ensuring that water planning processes will take into account droughts, floods and climate change impacts. These activities include preparation of Directive on floods, Communication addressing water scarcity and droughts and adoption of a green paper on Adapting to climate change in Europe – options for EU action. Long tradition of water management planning in the Czech Republic has been reflected in the fact that planning for meeting the requirements of WFD involves not only protection of water as a component of the environment but also flood protection and water use (supply) issues. For the planning purposes, Water Research Institute in Prague has developed a water management model, which integrates hydrological inputs and water management issues in a river basin scale. This model has been interlinked with a hydrological model, which simulates river flows and other hydrological series from series of meteorological variables (series of basin precipitation, air temperature and air relative humidity) and therefore the whole system is applied also for water management simulation, planning and decision making for hydrological conditions affected by climate change. In the water management model, the river basin is described as a network of branches (river reaches, channels) and nodes (confluences, reservoirs, water abstraction and waste water discharge locations, and other sites). The water management is simulated by using flow series, demands for water use (abstractions, waste water discharges, flow regime requirements, such as minimum ecological flows, limits of water levels in reservoirs and other requirements), technical characteristics (storage capacities of reservoirs, capacities of river channels), and operation rules for flow regulation and water supply of individual users. The simulated data include time series of flows (affected by the regulation and water use), water storages and water levels in reservoirs and simulated water abstractions and waste water discharges. The time series are statistically analysed and the availability of water resources is assessed in terms of probability. The water management model uses graphical interface (GUI), which allows its effective and flexible application for different hydrological and water use scenarios. The input and output series of the model are managed in GIS database. The paper describes the simulation system in more detail and gives an example of its applicability and potentials.