Management of water scarcity in arid areas: a case study (Ziz Watershed)

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs 6 deals with water security, which refers mainly to ensure availability and sus-tainable management of water. The present study aims to enhance reservoir performance under climate change to deal with water scarcity. For this purpose, we proposed a new methodology where precipitation and evaporation data provided through temporal downscaling are leveraged by a real-time management algorithm coupled with the Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS). The real-time dam management algorithm is based on water balance equation and rule curves. It provides information about (1) dam storage, (2) dam release, (3) dam evaporation, (4) dam diversion, (5) spilled water volume, (6) emergency spilled water volume, (7) dam inflow, (8) irrigation demand, (9) irrigation shortage, (10) dam siltation, (11) dam hydropower produc-tion, (12) hydropower energy income. The developed approach has been applied to the Hassan Addakhil multipurpose reservoir in Morocco. The result shows that the dam reliability and resili-ence have increased from 40% to 70% and from 16% to 66%, respectively, while the vulnerability remained constant. Additionally, this study has pointed out that the installation of a hydropower plant is an opportunity to produce clean electrical energy and generate an income enough to cov-er different costs related to dam management and maintenance. Therefore, the real-time man-agement tool developed in the framework of this project can significantly enhance reservoir per-formance.