Existing Water Balance in the Bago River Basin, Myanmar

Abstract

Water systems have complex constituent interactions requiring development and evaluation of management amidst uncertainties of climate and constrained natural resources. This paper outlines water resources planning is developed based on the current water resources availability and demand situation by using Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model to evaluate an existing water balance of the Bago River Basin, Myanmar. The study area is approximately 2,660 km2 and the Bago River is the main water resources for demand purposes of Bago township with gauging stations. The water resources planning from upstream of Bago river to Bago Township was calibrated and vilified with quantitative statistics (coefficient of determination, R2; Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, NSE and Root mean square error, RMSE). The calibrated results fitted to the observed data during 2011-2015 with R2 = 0.99, NSE = 0.88, and RMSE = 24 m3/s, and validated in 2016-2018 with R2 = 0.99, NSE = 1, and RMSE = 10 m3/s, respectively. The results showed the model advanced through WEAP is highly proficient and exhibited great performance to manage available water resources and indicated that currently the basin has sufficient water to meet the water demands in the basin.