Review of water resource and reservoir planning models for use in the Mekong. [Report of the IWMI-CPWF Mekong (MK1) Project on Optimizing Reservoir Management for Livelihoods]

Abstract

In recent years, great emphasis has been placed on the need to improve the management of the environmental and social impacts of large dams. This is particularly important in the Mekong River Basin where the construction of a large number of new dams are planned and yet a large proportion of the population depend on fisheries and other natural resources, which may be adversely affected by their construction. The environmental and consequent social impacts of large dams are often complex and extremely difficult to predict. Dam planners and operators often have to consider a huge number of factors and often conflicting objectives, which makes decision making difficult. In such situations, computer models that can be used to simulate and optimize dam operations are a useful tool. However, to date, most models have focused on the physical aspects of systems and rarely (if ever) explicitly incorporate environmental and social issues. This report presents a brief review of different models and their application to water resource management, both in the Mekong and elsewhere and outlines a modelling strategy for the MK1 project.