Full Description

The development of integrated resource plans (IRPs) has significantly increased in recentyears. As a result, analytical tools, such as systems models developed in commercialsimulation tools, have been developed to integrate the evaluation of different systems intoone framework. Water resources systems models, which conceptually simulate theinteraction between surface water and groundwater systems, for many years havepresented the challenge to conceptualize detailed numerical models into simplerelationships that can be used as transform functions in a systems model.As part of the Rancho California Water District (RCWD) IRP, an existing groundwatermodel was used to understand the basic behavior of the basin under different hydrologicand artificial recharge conditions. The basin was conceptualized as a series of storageunits and rates in a systems dynamics model and the groundwater model output was usedto develop multiple linear regression equations to define the storage units and rates.The multi-linear regression approach resulted in a systems model that closely matchedthe groundwater numerical model, with a level of accuracy more than adequate for thedevelopment of the IRP. The validity of the multi-linear regression approach for thisspecific project presents a valuable development in the use of commercial simulationtools, potentially applicable in areas beyond groundwater-surface water interaction.Given the fact that computing power is still not sufficient to evaluate integratedalternatives with detailed numerical models, the use of the systems model as a singleanalytical tool for the integrated alternatives results in significant savings by allowing theevaluation of multiple alternatives in a fraction of the time that it would take to run agroundwater model to achieve the same overall results. Includes 9 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/01/2006 Number of Pages: 19File Size: 1 file , 1 MB