EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF A WATER-SYSTEM - AN APPLICATION TO THE ARAGON AND GALLEGO RIVERS IN SPAIN

This paper describes the use of both an optimization technique and a simulation technique for assessing the performance of alternative configurations for a water system. This methodology is applied to the Aragon - Gallego system, in Spain. This reservoir system is used primarily to supply water for irrigation. The goal is to get more water in conditions to be used for the irrigation of several new areas in the basins. Given a specific configuration in the optimization step, the out-of-kilter algorithm is applied to a specially designed network that models the system in order to know the best way to distribute the water resources in a year. Demands in each period are fixed and cost coefficients of the variables are assigned to reproduce the different priorities of the demands. The simulation technique permits one to compare the different configurations and to assess their performance over time.