Seasonal Water Allocation: Dealing with Hydrologic Variability in the Context of a Water Rights System
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 139, Issue 1
Abstract
In China, the allocation of water rights in river basins is customarily determined by annual mean volumes of water resources. However, seasonal variability of water availability should be considered for an effective and flexible allocation policy. This paper summarizes a framework for seasonal water allocation. It proposes a modified rule for seasonal water allocation on the basis of the traditional rule used in China and introduces a risk analysis model to assess the performance improvement of the proposed rule when dealing with hydrologic variability in the context of a water rights system. The framework and models were applied to the Shiyang River Basin, Gansu Province, China, and they indicated that seasonally allocated water under the modified rule is more stable and has a lower risk for water use than a rule based on annual mean volumes. This leads to more reliable supplies over the seasons and could provide an effective method for water rights operation in the Shiyang River Basin. It also presents a useful reference for water resource management in other water-deficient regions of China.
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Acknowledgments
This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51009076), (91125018) and (51279076), International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (2010DFA21750), 2011 Chinese Ministry of Water Resource Program - Shiyang River Project (201101046), and the National Science-technology Support Plan (2008BAB42B04), as well as and the Australian Research Council (ARC) (No: DP120102917), Australia-China Environment Development Program- Shiyang/Shule River Project.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 139 • Issue 1 • January 2013
Pages: 76 - 85
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 1, 2010
Accepted: Nov 4, 2011
Published online: Nov 8, 2011
Published in print: Jan 1, 2013
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