A benchmark test problem for reservoir simulation models and comparison of their results

This paper tests the ability of different reservoir operation models to represent a relatively simple water rationing policy through a multi-year simulation of the Upper Krishna River Basin in India. The tested policies involve reductions in water demand as a function of storage levels. The models that were tested include Mike Hydro Basin, the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model, the HEC-ResSIM model, and the WEB.BM model. Other vendors who tested their models subsequently declined participation in this publication. The models utilized single-time step progression and assumed steady-state flows, implying an expectation of similar solutions among the models. The results show that Mike Hydro Basin and HEC-ResSIM fail to allocate water according to the prescribed rules. The paper provides a problem description and downloadable input and output data. Modelling practitioners can test the performance of their models by using the benchmark solution presented in this paper.