Decision Support System (DSS)

Introduction:
A DSS provides the Water Management Authorities with a structured, user friendly, practical and
complete water resources management information system.
DSS allows users to analyse hydrologic data, run hydrologic simulation models, run basin water
allocation models and study the effect of potential decisions. It is designed to access or display
hydrologic data, to model dynamic hydrologic conditions, and to determine the ability of the river
system to meet future demand based on operational and administrative use of storage. It allows
decision makers to assess the impact of potential decisions by using What if scenarios.
Example applications of a DSS include:
- Seasonal reservoir planning
- Planning a new reservoir or transfer
- Reservoir sedimentation
- Drought management
- Combined management of reservoirs and water transfers
- Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater
- Groundwater recharge and over-exploitation
- Increased efficiency of water management in general including factor such as crop selection,
canal seepage, reservoir operation and the competition between domestic, industrial and
agricultural water demands
- Water quality
The main components of a DSS are illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Simplified components and data flows in the DSS

Core Functionality:
There are six components (or core functions) to the DSS:
- A Hydrometeorological Information System and database
- Analysis and modelling
- Scenario management
- Decision support
- Presentation and dissemination
- System configuration
The relationships between these components are illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Functional components of a DSS
Some of the modeling tools that are used for DSS include:
MIKE HYDRO
TA Temporal Analyst
MIKE 11
MIKESHE
As well DHI products other proprietary software and models developed by States (including
spreadsheet based models) have been included in the DSS.
Participating States and Central Agencies
State Central Agency
Andhra Pradesh National Institute of Hydrology (NIH)
Chhattisgarh Central Water Commission (CWC)
Gujarat Central Ground Water Board CGWB)
Karnataka Central Water and Power Research Station
(CWPRS)
Kerala India Meteorological Department (IMD)
Madhya Pradesh Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
Maharashtra
Orissa
Tamil Nadu

Examples of the issues identified by each agency in IHP-2 where a DSS can be of real value are listed
below.

States Issues
Andhra Pradesh (Middle
Godavari Basin)
Combined management of reservoir and water
transfers
Providing water for all sectors considering the
increasing demands
Balancing head-end and tail-end abstraction
along irrigation canals
Crop selection and corresponding water
requirement
Chhattisgarh (Upper Mahanadi
Basin)
Tank operation in dry years
Conjunctive use of surface and ground water
Demonstrate benefits of changes in cropping
pattern
Support decision on canal lining
Gujarat (Mahi Basin)
Increased efficiency of water management in
general
Combined operation of reservoir in dry, normal
and flood conditions
Improving conditions for the population in
drought prone areas
Reduced periods of inundation in low-sloping
command areas
Karnataka (Palar Basin)
Drought management
Indentifying recharge areas
Determining impacts of over exploitation of GW
Karnataka (Tungabhadra
Command area)
Fertilizer pollution of groundwater
Water logging at head-end and scarcity at tail-
end canals
Kerala (Bharathapuza Basin)
Efficient management of water resources
Suitable water management in dry years
Potential hydropower production
The impact of GW of measure to mitigate the
effect of sand mining
Environmental flows
Madhya Pradesh (Wainganga
Basin)
Assessment of water resources availability
Assess the impact on water availability from
infrastructure rehabilitation
Increased efficiency of water management in
general
Crop selection, particularly in dry years
Maharashtra (Bhima Basin)
The project area is severely drought prone and
GW over exploited
Increasing competition between domestic and
agricultural water demand
Evaluating reservoir operation to minimize the
effect of drought
Evaluating reservoir operation to minimize the
effect of flooding
Assessing the water pollution on Ujjain from
upstream irrigation, municipal and industrial
waste
Orissa
Conjunctive use in irrigated area
Mitigating water logging through increased GW
pumping
Changing cropping pattern
The impact of inter-basin transfer or additional
surface storage
Tamil Nadu (Agniyar Baisn)
Severe water shortage and competing sectors
Inter-basin transfer of water to Agniyar basin
Determining impacts of over exploitation of GW
Tamil Nadu (Tamirparani
Basin)
Multipurpose multi reservoir operation
River pollution
Drought management in some area
Tamil Nadu (Vaippar Basin)
Severe water shortage and competing sectors
Inter-basin transfer
Conjunctive use
Water quality problems
CPCB
Has selected Brahmani River as case study
under DSS (P) as water quality is emerging in
this basin and may become severe in near
future.

These applications are presented in the report Development of Decision Support System (Planning)
for Integrated Water Resources Development and Management - DSS Application.
Example DSS in action
See the report Development of Decision Support System (Planning) for Integrated Water Resources
Development and Management- DSS Application for a description of all applications.
The Upper Bhima, Maharashtra
The Upper Bhima was selected as the pilot basin for the DSS Planning Project considering the data
availability, the range of water resources problems in the basin. The distribution of water in the
Bhima is an on-going concern for Maharastra (e.g.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Maharashtra-to-release-water-to-
Bhima/articleshow/20070435.cms).
The purpose of applying the DSS to the Upper Bhima basin was to consider the following issues:
The project area is severely drought prone and groundwater over-exploited.
Increasing competition between domestic, industrial and agricultural water demands.
Evaluating integrated reservoir operation to minimize the effects of drought and flooding.
Conjunctive use.
Assessing the water pollution on Ujjani from upstream irrigation, municipal, and industrial
waste.
A river basin model (MIKE BASIN now transferred to MIKE HYDRO) was developed for the Upper
Bhima. The area was divided in 30 sub-catchments for the surface water and 70 sub-catchments for
groundwater modelling. A major effort was made to process the hydro-meteorological and to
calibrate rainfall-runoff models, so that long time series of runoff and groundwater recharge could
be generated for each sub-catchment.
The rainfall-runoff model (NAM) requires rainfall data of stations in or near the catchment area,
evapotranspiration data and discharge data at the outlet of catchment, either as assessed reservoir
inflow or as measured discharge at a river gauging station. The calibration period was selected such
that all these time series data sets are available.
In cases where it was difficult to achieve a good calibration emphasis was given to ensuring a correct
water balance and distribution of high and low flows, so that the generated series can be considered
representative for the area.
The calibrated models were applied to generate long time series (1970 to 2009) using the available
rainfall and evapotranspiration data. The runoff series for each catchment was then prepared as a
combination of the measured surface runoff and the NAM generated flow.
Two example applications are given below. For a full explanation of all applications see the Interim
Report Volume II.
Drought monitoring
The DSS includes a Dashboard Manager, which can generate web-sites to illustrate the water re-
sources situations in different ways (see Figure 9-3 below).


Figure 9-3 Example DSS web site that shows the current groundwater levels and rainfall

The colour coding of the watersheds indicate the post-monsoon groundwater level compared to the
previous five years while the colour of the rain gauges (squares) indicate the deviation of the annual
rainfall from normal. The visitor to this web page can plot rainfall and groundwater levels at each
station / watershed.

Seasonal Groundwater Planning
The Government of Maharashtra also requested a facility to predict the likely development of the
groundwater levels once the post-monsoon levels have been measured. This application was tested
using the BM-61 GSDA watershed. The simulated level variation, starting at the post-monsoon level,
is shown for five years in comparison with the observed level (Figure 9-2).


Figure 9-4 Test predictions of the groundwater level development in watershed BM61 (meter below
ground level) with given assumptions concerning the water use for domestic and agricultural
purposes.

Artificial Recharge

The potential of increasing groundwater availability through a range of artificial infiltration
structures was tested for a selected watershed. In a scenario of increased water demands from
groundwater, the depth to groundwater was simulated over a 40 year period to indicate the
sustainability of this utilization with and without the proposed artificial recharge (see Figure 9-4)


Figure 9-4 Simulated groundwater depth with and without artificial infiltration

The simulations indicate that increased draft will only be sustainable with the artificial recharge in
place. Note that an analysis based only on the recent, relatively wet, years would have given the
false impression that increased groundwater pumping would be possible also without the artificial
recharge.

Links
A link to a library of all DHI reports
http://mikebydhi.com/
State websites