MODSIM 2009

The conference was held over five days with presentations covering issues of modelling and simulation, water resources, environmental management, decision support systems and other related sciences. Presenting organisations include BOM, CSIRO, NSW DWE, NSW DECC, VIC DPI, ABS, QLD DERM, BMT WBM (Consultants) and local and international universities. Sessions from eWater on WaterCAST and Ground water/Surface water interaction were well supported. WaterCAST had a dozen papers presented, mainly by practitioners. The GW/SW interactions had a dozen papers and two sessions of workshops. RiverSystems was also well supported with three papers presented. A few papers were also presented on eWater's other themes. 

Highlights:

• Matthew Fernandes from RMIT University presented Mobi a REALM stylised model to simulate networks in Victoria. The presentation demonstrated different cost functions for shortfall, storage targets and minimum and maximum flow conditions. As a result, I may alter slightly the way we deal with cost arcs in RiverManager.
• Melbourne water is building a new product OPTIMISAR to work with REALM. M.D.U.P Kularathna from Melbourne Water presented the product, which seems to add Resource Assessment capabilities to REALM. They are developing the product under their small/medium enterprise grant scheme. See http://www.mmv.vic.gov.au/Assets/2299/1/MVPTRS_MelbWater_WaterSupplyOptimisation.pdf
• Natasha Boland presented recent advances in linear programming performance. She also described methods using integer programming for discretising non-linear non-convex parameters.
• AQUATOOL seems to be in use in our space (regulated catchments): http://www.iiama.upv.es:8080/aquatool/Members/asolera/ManUsuarioAquatooldma_V002.pdf
• P.P. Mapiam presented some interesting work showing that rainfall forecasting models from radar need to be parameterised at the same time-scale as they are used.
• WaterCAST, JAMS and CatchMods were presented with a case-study on the Duck river. Several papers were presented. See M. Bende-Michl
• Rob Argent presented the direction of the BOM with respect to water resource data. Seems like early days for them. They hope to collect data on surface water, ground water, storage levels, meteorological data, water use data, water rights, water allocations, water trades, urban water demand and urban water restrictions. Australian Water Resource Information System (AWRIS) will run 2008-2010.
• N. K. Tuteja from BOM presented a paper, Hydraulic Modelling of the spatio-temporal flood inundation patterns of the Koondrook PerricootaForest Wetlands - The Living Murray. Described a method using 2 dimensional hydraulic models to model flood inundation. Examination of wetland inundation showed common commence-to-fill parameters with variable retention characteristics. Simplified models of wetland behaviour were then incorporated in hydrological models for Living Murray project. The presenter was questioned about calibration and validation methods. Groundwater effects may interfere with this simplification. Simulation in MIKE 21 took 2 weeks per simulation and MIKE-FLOOD took 50 days per simulation!  

Our presentations:

• Development of RiverOperator: a tool to support operational management of river systems. Bridgart, R.J. and M. Bethune
• Improving the efficiency of delivering water in Australian river systems: modelling multiple paths. Gilmore, R.L., G. Kuczera, D. Penton and G. Podger
• Comparing software for modelling the management rules that river operators implement. Penton, D.J. and R. Gilmore

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