2012•Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 2012Requires access
Strategic long-term planning for greater Sydney's water supply
S Maheswaran, Graham S. Begg, I Tanner
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Abstract
The current challenges and approaches for strategic planning of the water supply for the greater Sydney region are discussed in this paper. Sydney, as well as many parts of Australia and many countries in the world, has been exposed to high rainfall variability and multiyear droughts since records began but in recent times these have appeared to be more prevalent. Planning, design and operation of water supply systems need to address the limitations of the availability of surface and ground water resources or desalination in these areas. Sydney's water supply system has one of the highest stored water per capita in the world, and has been designed this way due to the large variation in rainfall experienced in this region of Australia. The SCA's long term supply planning process incorporates innovative hydrologic approaches to manage water quantity and quality issues to ensure supply reliability and security. Using the SCA's computer models, it is possible to simulate the response of the water supply system for any given sequence of rainfall and inflow events. Uncertainty about the impacts of climate change, the severity of future droughts, future water consumption and how the rivers will respond to new river health initiatives, are the greatest challenges for future supply planning for greater Sydney. But we have the integrated approach and proven tools to manage quality and quantity in both the short term and long term to ensure reliability and security during the good times and the dry times. Currently greater Sydney's supply capability (yield and infrastructure) exceeds the demands placed upon the supply system, but with the anticipated impacts of the introduction of Environmental flows from Warragamba Dam (around 2018), climate changes and population growth being modelled, the Supply : Demand equation is adversely unbalanced in the near future. A new source of water will be required. This is the work of the NSW government's Metropolitan Water Planning process.