Fair water resources allocation with application to the South Saskatchewan River Basin

Abstract

A formal decision making methodology is presented for equitably allocating water among competing users in a river basin when taking into account both the societal and physical systems aspects of the allocation problem. More specifically, within the societal component of the decision problem, multiple participants, their multiple objectives, equity principles, and economic factors are taken into account, while the physical systems part reflects relevant hydrologic and environmental factors. The Cooperative Water Allocation Model (CWAM) incorporates these societal and physical systems concerns within the framework of a large-scale optimization program which is divided into two main steps. Firstly, water is allocated among users based on existing legal water rights regimes or agreements. In the second step, water and associated benefits are reallocated among stakeholders to maximize basin-wide welfare. The CWAM methodology is used to study the South Saskatchewan River Basin located in Alberta, Canada, to demonstrate how it can be conveniently applied to a complex water allocation problem. © 2013 Canadian Water Resources Association.