Managing complex water resources systems

A new method for managing complex water resources systems is described. To give the work a practical focus, the method is applied to the South East Wales Conjunctive Resource Scheme. This is a multi-reservoir system containing direct supply, regulating and pumped storage reservoirs as well as river abstractions. The management method is based on the use of simulations using three simple criteria, to always meet demands, the reservoirs must not empty and they must refill by March 31st. To assess the utility of the method it is benchmarked against the existing management method for the system which is based on control curves. It is shown that the new method offers cost savings of up to 5% while reliably meeting demands.