Modeling Regional Water Supply: Silistra Case Study

Water resource systems have been an important part of resources and environment related research at IIASA since its inception. As demands for water increase relative to supply, the intensity and efficiency of water resources management must be developed further. This in turn requires an increase in the degree of detail and sophistication of the analysis, including economic, social and environmental evaluation of water resources development alternatives aided by application of mathematical modeling techniques, to generate inputs for planning, design, and operational decisions. In 1978 it was decided that parallel to the continuation of demand studies, an attempt would be made to integrate the results of our studies on water demands with water supply considerations. This new task was named "Regional Water Management" (Task 1, Resources and Environment Area). One of the case studies in this Task, carried out in collaboration with several Bulgarian institutions and the Regional Development Task of IIASA, is concerned with water resources management in the Silistra region of Bulgaria. This paper on modeling the water supply system in the Silistra region accompanies the earlier study on the water demands of agriculture in the same region