Abstract
Since the early nineteen eighties, drought restriction was managed using risk based multi-user priority rules and stochastic systems analysis for operational and development planning of the water resources in South Africa. The definition of the risk criteria for restricting water users has largely been based on expert opinion and qualitative economic criteria. The aim of this research study is to develop a decision support system for assessing the optimal regional assurance of water supply requirements of various water use sectors. The approach entails analysing the effect of various restriction rule settings on macroeconomic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment and household income by allocating different levels of assurance of supply to the different water user sectors. This can be achieved by combining the Water Resource Planning Model (WRPM) and an economic model i.e. the Water Impact Model (WIM) and testing its performance. With this enhancement of the existing software and the development of the concept, various scenarios can be analysed in different economic regions to find the optimal user priority criteria for restricted water supply...
M.Phil. (Civil Engineering Science)