CVS 545:Water Resources Engineering II

Water Resources Planning Techniques

L. O. Muku

Department of Civil& Structural Engineering

DCSE, MOI UNIVERSITY 15-May-25

Introduction
Challenges
 Of the Global water sources, 97% is seawater, and 3% is freshwater. Of the freshwater 87%
is not accessible, meaning only 13% of freshwater is accessible, a mere 0.4% of the total!

 Today more than 2 billion people are affected by water shortages in over 40 countries.

 263 river basins are shared by two or more nations;

 2 million tonnes per day of human waste are deposited in water courses.

 Half the population of the developing world are exposed to polluted sources of water that
increase disease incidence.

 90% of natural disasters in the 1990s were water related.

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Introduction
Water crisis?
 Water resources are increasingly under pressure from intensifying competition for the
water among users;

 Water withdrawals have increased more than twice as fast as population growth and
currently one third of the world's population live in countries that experience medium to
high water stress;

 Pollution is further enhancing water scarcity by reducing water usability downstream;

 Shortcomings in the management of water, a focus on developing new sources rather than
managing existing ones better,

 More and more development means greater impacts on the environment;

 Current concerns about climate variability and climate change demand improved
management of water resources to cope with more intense floods and droughts.

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Purpose of planning and management
Purpose
 How can the renewable yet finite resources best be managed and used?

 How can this be accomplished in an environment of:

 uncertain supplies
 uncertain and increasing demands
 increasing conflicts among individuals having different interests
 in the management of a river and its basin?

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Need for Planning and Management
 Severity of the adverse consequences of droughts, floods and excessive pollution:
 Too little water due to growing urbanization, additional water requirements, instream flow
requirements etc. Measures should be taken to reduce the demand during scarcity times.
 Too much water due to increased flood frequencies and increase in water requirements due
to increased economic development on river floodplains.
 Polluted water due to both industrial and household discharges.

 Degradation of aquatic and riparian systems due to river training and reclamation of
floodplains for urban and industrial development, poor water quality due to discharges of
pesticides, fertilizers and wastewater effluents etc.
 Irrigation projects abstract water from the total environment.

 Riverbank erosion and degradation of riverbed upstream of the reservoirs may increase the
flooding risks.
 Sediment accumulation in the reservoir due to poor water quality.

 Goal is to identify and evaluate alternative measures that may increase the quantitative and
qualitative system performance
 the primary goal of planning and management policies.
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System Components
 Water resources planning and management involves the interaction of three interdependent
subsystems:
1) Natural river subsystem : Physical, chemical and biological processes takes place
2) Socio-economic subsystem: Human activities related to the use of the natural river
system
3) Administrative and institutional subsystem: Administration, legislation and
regulation, where the decision, planning and management processes take place.

 Inadequate attention to one subsystem can reduce the effect of any work done to improve
the performance of the others


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Planning and Management Aspects
Technical aspects
 Identify the characteristics of resources in the basin, including land, rainfall, runoff, stream and river
flows and groundwater.
 Technical aspects of planning involves:
 Predicting changes in land use/covers and economic activities at watershed and river basin levels.
 Estimation of costs and benefits of any measures being and to be taken to manage the basin’s water
resource including engineering structures, canals, diversion structures etc.
 Identification and evaluation of alternative management strategies; alternative time schedules for
implementing those measures.
Economic and Financial aspects
 Water should be treated as an economic commodity to extract the maximum benefits as well as to
generate funds to recover the costs of the investments and of the operation and maintenance of the
system.
 Water treated for long as a free commodity.
 Revenues recovered are far below the capital cost incurred.
 Financial component of any planning process is needed to recover construction costs, maintenance,
repair and operation costs.
 In management policies, financial viability is viewed as a constraint that must be satisfied; not as an
objective whose maximization could result in a reduction in economic efficiency, equity or other non-
monetary objectives.
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Planning and Management Aspects
Institutional aspects
 Successful project implementation needs an enabling environment.
 National, provincial and local policies, legislation and institutions are crucial for implementation of
the decisions.
 The role of the government is crucial since water is:
 Not a property right
 A resource that often requires large investment to develop
 A medium that can impulse external effects
 Main causes of failure of water resources development project:
- Insufficient institutional setting; Lack of a sound economic evaluation and implementation .

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Advantages of watershed-based planning
 Diversity between localities – demand for services vary from one place to another.
 Efficiency- Locally financed and provided services can be produced at a lower cost and enhance
community participation.
 Accountability- Decentralised institutions are more accountable to its constituents due to proximity
of the service providers to the served people.
 Co-ordination - Since many local services are interdependent, co-ordination of services can results to
cost saving.

Objectives of watershed-based planning

 A reference for management.
 Information about watershed’s full hydrological regime.
 An analytical system or model capable of revealing the full range of impacts that would be produced
by particular uses and developments in the watershed.
 Participation by stakeholders.
 Specified management objectives of the watershed, with criteria for assessing management
alternatives in an objective and unbiased manner.

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Steps in planning a new water resources project


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Guidelines for planning of water resources projects
 Levels of Planning
- political, agency, regions
 Phases of Planning
-Reconnaissance study
-Feasibility study
-Detailed structural design
 Objectives
 Projections for planning
 Project formulation
 Public participation
 Project evaluation
 Financial consideration
 Environmental consideration

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Steps in the implementation and evaluation of a new water resource project
 Site selection - two or more experimental watersheds

 Calibration - relationships are established between watersheds in respect of their outputs

i.e. control vs the treated watersheds. The hydrologic parameters calibrated include water
temperature, stream flow, sediment flow, nutrient loss, and water pollution.

 Watershed treatments - except the control, all are put under various types of treatments.
These activities alter the physical characteristics of the watersheds, and subsequently the
output under study.

 Measurement of results – parameters are again measured on both the control and the
treated watersheds and then compared. Any change in the magnitude of these parameters is
attributed to the effects of the treatment applied.

 Evaluation of results - Regression analyses on both calibrated and post-treatment data are
conducted and plotted together for comparison in order to identify the effects of
treatments on the watersheds.

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Tools for water resources planning and management
 Non-structural
-Water supply: available, transfers, regeneration
-Water demand: domestic, livestock, irrigation, industrial, recreation
 Structural
-Dams
-Barrages
-Canals/tunnels
 Management
-Agreements
-Subsidies
-Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater
-Cropping calendars
-Public awareness
-Research in water management

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Common Pitfalls in Project Planning
 The preliminary report: basis of implementation; should not be based on approximations
and short-cuts.
 Agency standards: some may not be appropriate, technology could change. Thus, Strict
adherence to such standards should not be required when professional judgement suggests
otherwise.
 Early construction: if done before it is required may constitute a waster; stage
construction or investment may be appropriate. Projections should be made.
 Failure to consider all alternatives: simple engineering alternatives and/or non-engineering
alternatives may be overlooked .
 Use of market prices: market prices are not necessarily a satisfactory basis for computing
benefits; the real benefit should be estimated and utilized in the economic analysis.
 Use of next-best alternative: it is not uncommon to use the cost of the next-best alternative
as a measure of benefits. The only alternative acceptable as a basis for estimating benefits is
an alternative which would be built if the project under study were dropped.
 A priori decision: Decisions regarding certain features may be made even before economic
analysis is done and are never checked.
 Wrong Justification: it would be wrong to build a reservoir for flood control on the basis of
anticipated future growth of the area to be protected.
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Steps of developing engineering projects


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Feasibility Analysis: A Schematic Diagram


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Feasibility Analysis: A Schematic Diagram
Recall: Areas of Analysis
 Technical Analysis
 Demand/Need and Market Analysis
 Management Analysis
 Economic Analysis
 Financial Analysis
 Social Analysis
 Environmental Analysis.

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Feasibility Analysis:
Technical Analysis
 Every project must be technically feasible.

 Technical analysis examines whether the project under study is technically feasible to setup
and operate to produce service/product. For example, in water project, say the
construction of dam: geology, geomorphology, soil test, hydrology, site selection, etc needs
to be analyzed.

Technical Aspects to be Considered

 Choice of technological process and/ or appropriate technology,
 Is the technology proven or tested?
 Does the technology/ process/ equipment technically fit with the facility’s existing
technology/process/equipment & machinery?
 Equipment capacity & whether it is as per requirement
 List of recommended equipment suppliers.
 Reputation of the suppliers and performance guarantees.

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Feasibility Analysis:
Demands
 Should government make six lane fast track road while the SGR is operational?
 Can the proposed abattoir be able to process 100,000 kgs of beef per day?
 Is another dam necessary in Sosiani River upstream of Eldoret town?

Market and Demand Analysis

 Market and demand analysis look at the need of the project and help to estimate demand
 It is the key activity for determining the scope of an investment, the possible production
programs, the technology required and often the choice of location.
 The analysis cover mainly:
1) Aggregate demand for the product/service
2) The share of unfulfilled demand
3) Demand forecasting
4) Market price of product/service
5) Analysis of competitors, their strength weakness
6) Distribution mechanisms.

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Feasibility Analysis:
Management Analysis
- If the management is incompetent, even a good project may fail. So it looks at:
 Types of organisation
 Academic qualification, and experience of key persons
 Availability of personnel required for project execution.
 Assessment of other specific skills required for the project
 User’s role in case of development projects etc.

Social Analysis
 A project may cause social impacts in many ways
 Will the project have any adverse effects on the society?
 What are positive and negative impacts
 Viable measures to address negative impacts
 Estimating cost for addressing social impacts.

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Feasibility Analysis:
Environmental Analysis
 A project may cause environmental impacts in many ways
 Identification and analysis of adverse effects on the environment
 Identification of positive impacts
 Negative impacts require mitigation measures
 Designing environmental management plan
 Provision of fund for environment management plan.

Main Act/guidelines in Kenya are Environment & Coordination Act 2015 and
Environmental Impact Assessment and Audit Guidelines, 2003. The analysis should meet the
requirements mentioned by the Act and regulations

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End of the Lecture

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