Abstract. Modelling and optimization techniques for water resources
allocation are proposed to identify the economic value of the unsatisfied
municipal water demand against demands emerging from other sectors. While
this is always an important step in integrated water resource management
perspective, it became crucial for water scarce Countries. In fact, since
the competition for the resource is high, they are in crucial need to trade
values which will help them in satisfying their policies and needs. In this
framework, hydro-economic, social equity and environmental constraints need
to be satisfied. In the present study, a hydro-economic decision model based
on optimization schemes has been developed for water resources allocation,
that enable the evaluation of the economic cost of a deficiency in
fulfilling the municipal demand. Moreover, the model enables efficient water
resources management, satisfying the demand and proposing additional water
resources options. The formulated model is designed to maximize the demand
satisfaction and minimize water production cost subject to system
priorities, preferences and constraints. The demand priorities are defined
based on the effect of demand dissatisfaction, while hydrogeological and
physical characteristics of the resources are embedded as constraints in the
optimization problem. The application to the City of Amman is presented.
Amman is the Capital City of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a Country
located in the south-eastern area of the Mediterranean, on the East Bank of
the Jordan River. The main challenge for Jordan, that threat the development
and prosperity of all sectors, is the extreme water scarcity. In fact,
Jordan is classified as semi-arid to arid region with limited financial
resources and unprecedented population growth. While the easy solution
directly goes to the simple but expensive approach to cover the demand, case
study results show that the proposed model plays a major role in providing
directions to decision makers to orient their policies and strategies in
order to achieve sustainability of scarce water resources, satisfaction of
the minimum required demand as well as financial sustainability. In
addition, results map out national needs and priorities that are crucial in
understanding and controlling the complexity of Jordan's water sector,
mainly for the city of Amman.
Trading the Economic Value of Unsatisfied Municipal Water Demand
