Computer Use for River Regulation

The complexity that occurs in regulating multiple-purpose reservoir systems has necessitated the use of computer programs for scheduling reservoir regulation. The need for real-time use of scheduling computer programs coupled with the complexity of multiple-purpose reservoir regulation has made automated regulation schemes and interactive computer processing highly desirable. The scheduling engineer must be able to examine easily results of a trial computer simulation and modify operating constraints and forecasted information as necessary to retry the simulation. The package of stand-alone computer programs with interfacing capability is considered. These programs are used in real-time reservoir regulation and streamflow forecasting analyses in the North Pacific Division office of the Corps of Engineers. No optimization procedures are used but experience indicates that the techniques used to simulate reservoir regulation coupled with the interactive computer processing features effectively provide good multiple-purpose system operation.