Off Allocation SRG

Document History

Overview

Description and rationale

Off-allocation flows are typically those flows that are in excess of regulated requirements. A number of different types of rules are used to share off-allocation flows in practice. The off-allocation node (OAN) in Source enables these rules to be replicated.

Scale

The off-allocation node manages access to flows in a specified reach of the river and can also share flows with downstream off allocation reaches.

Principal developer

Several jurisdictions in Australia have developed model representations of off-allocation, starting from the 1980's with refinements continuing since then in response to evolving water management needs. The representation in Source has been developed by eWater, based on these earlier representations.

Scientific Provenance

A number of permutations of off-allocation have been implemented by various Australian states over many years. Within a given jurisdiction it is not uncommon for there to be differences in the way off-allocation is implemented between river valleys. The representation of off-allocation in Source is designed to replicate these practical implementations and also provide sufficient flexibility to accommodate new changes if required.

Version

Vx.x.x has complete functionality

Dependencies

• Requires a Resource Assessment System (RAS).
• Requires that the account distribution method is used at the Water User Node and other relevant node types.
• If a splitter is used, an off-allocation node cannot manage off-allocation orders down both arms of the splitter. This means that an off allocation node has to be placed separately downstream of each arm of the splitter.

Assumptions and Limitations

Table 1. Assumptions and constraints applying to off-allocation

Definitions

Theory

Overview

An off-allocation flow sharing system is described in Source by:

• An accounting and sharing system
• Surplus flow allocation
• Off allocation requests and withdrawals
  
  

Off allocation accounting and sharing is specified as an account type within a resource assessment system. On this basis, where applicable, it inherits the ownership of the resource assessment system, which is taken into account when water is allocated. The off allocation system (OAS) properties that can be configured include:

• The start of the off allocation water year,
• Whether the sharing arrangement is on the basis of trying to equalise access opportunity to account holders, however, the Equalise Shares function is no longer accessed by the user since version V4.10.2 of Source.
• Optional annual system cap on the amount of off allocation water that can be allocated in a water year,
• Optional rules for resetting account balances when specified storages spill,
• Configurable list of storages that are considered for off allocation access, and
• Off allocation accounts.
  
  

The off allocation accounts are related to off allocation reaches which are defined by off allocation nodes (OANs). An OAS may be associated with multiple OANs. The off allocation properties for an associated OAN that can be configured include:

• Optional annual usage limit,
• Table of off allocation volume thresholds and associated priorities for downstream water users, and
• Table of downstream water users and associated shares, initial usage, optional use limit and optional delivery efficiency override.
  
  

The OAN may only be associated with water users that are downstream of the node. The type of water users that place off allocation requests include:

• Water User supplied via Supply Point Nodes,
• Bulk Licensing Nodes,
• Environmental Node,
• Storage Nodes, and
• OANs. 
  
  

The OAN is used to determine off allocation volumes and to share this volume according to the rules specified in the OAS. The OAN properties that can be configured include:

• The off allocation trigger method,
• Start flow threshold for off allocation to be declared,
• Optional end flow threshold for off allocation to cease,
• Optional maximum flow threshold to cease off allocation,
• Optional proportion of off allocation to reserve i.e. not allocate,
• Optional start and end dates for the off allocation season, and
• Optional limit on off allocation requests to be passed to upstream OANs.
  
  

Modelling of off-allocation flow sharing in Source comprises three major components: firstly, the water user off allocation request to the system (source requests) which are adjusted for anticipated losses and gains in the ordering phase and reach the OAN as a target request. The ratio between the source and target request is considered to be the delivery efficiency, which may be optionally overridden. Secondly at the OAN volumes of water available to share are considered, and finally, the accounting and sharing of that water to meet water user requests. Off-allocation flow sharing is triggered when the flow volume at an OAN exceeds the defined criteria for an off-allocation flow sharing event. Noting that this may be further constrained by exceeding an optional maximum flow limit. A proportion of the volume of water above either orders or the flow threshold is shared between water users according to the rules specified in the OAS.

As a downstream OAN may have an account at an upstream OAN. In the case of a confluence it is possible for a downstream OAN to have accounts in both upstream branches. In such cases the OAN requests are sent to both upstream OANs. As the requests are met at one upstream branch the subsequent request in the other branch is correspondingly reduced ensuring that the request is not exceeded i.e. not double accounted. Note this will give priority of allocation to the upstream branch which is processed first.

The priority of access of different water users is associated with off allocation volume thresholds. There may be multiple increasing thresholds with different priorities at each threshold. This functionality has been included to represent the extent that events may reach. The first threshold represents a volume that is sufficient to meet the first extent of sharing e.g. the current off allocation reach. Consequently if the volume to be allocated is less than this amount then no sharing occurs. Subsequent thresholds recognise that the event may be able to reach further down in the system and also that the additional users may have a different priority e.g. filling of a storage. The thresholds are treated as a step function i.e. once equalled or exceeded then the current threshold priority applies.

Allocations to accounts depend on the available water, allocation priorities, ownership in the system, usage caps and water user requests.  Conditions for off-allocation flow sharing such as water quality or environmental health factors can be configured by the modeller entering a function to define a flow threshold based on reference water quality or flow at a point or points in the river.  Environmental requirements can be treated as water users who have an off-allocation requirement that can then be prioritised by the modeller or, alternatively, the modeller can define a function to restrict the triggering of an off-allocation flow event based on water quality, account allocation percentages or water sharing rules.

Off allocation requests

Off-allocation requests are generated by a range of previously mentioned downstream water users. The purpose of the request is largely dependent on the type of water user.

Off allocation requests from water users connected via a supply point are constrained to on farm storages, irrigation demands and maximum extraction rate at supply point. Note other demand types do not have functionality to make requests for off allocation water. Where specified, the on farm storage has an option to fill the storage to maximum storage volume with off allocation water. Each time step the on farm storage will place an additional request to bring the storage to maximum capacity. Depending on configuration settings, each time step the irrigation demand model may request off allocation water to fill rice ponds to maximum pond levels or other crops to opportunistic soil moisture targets (specified as depletions).

The bulk licensing node represents a point in the system where a portfolio of licences are aggregated together and are accounted together. In terms of off allocation water the off allocation requests of users associated with this node are combined together and sent to the associated OAN as a bulk request. The amount of the request that is allocated and delivered is then shared to associated licences according to specified sharing rules. Noting that delivery efficiency is taken into consideration from the bulk licensing node and not the portfolio of licences. The bulk licensing node also provides and optional off allocation use limit.

Storage nodes may optionally specify an unregulated operating target. Each day an off allocation request will be made to bring the storage up to the unregulated operating target. Note this target may be a function.

OANs group together requests from downstream water users and other OANs and pass these requests on to upstream OANs. These requests may optionally be capped to an upper limit. This functionality is provided to share different sized events amongst multiple downstream reaches. For example small events may only be shared to the most upstream reaches and very large events might be shared with all downstream reaches.

When off allocation reaches a water user the water may be used for three purposes, in the following priority order:

1. avoiding shortfalls in meeting the current regulated requirement
2. offsetting use debit orders
3. supplying water user node opportunistic requirements of crops and filling on farm storages

Off-allocation flow event triggers and volume estimation

In general, off-allocation events are triggered when flows at a location exceed a set of conditions, but these may also be subject to constraints when extraction of flows will result in some other conditions not being met. For example, the following types of off-allocation flow access conditions exist across New South Wales valleys:

• river operators judging when flows exceed regulated and essential requirements (operator triggers)
• exceedance thresholds
• water account triggers
• storage volume triggers
• water quality constraints
• environmental constraints
• duration and time of year triggers
  
  

Flow event triggers are based on flows exceeding flow thresholds at an OAN. These thresholds may be fixed numbers or a function and different thresholds can be specified for commencing and ending the off allocation event. The event triggers may be optionally constrained by a seasonal period and a maximum flow threshold, which may be a fixed number or function. The threshold can be configured to be based on total flow (Figure 1) or flow above orders (Figure 2). In the case where triggers are based on flow, the larger of orders and event trigger is adopted as the threshold. The off allocation volume may be determined as flow above threshold (Option 2 and 3 in respective Figures 1 and 2) or flow above orders (Option 1 and 4 in respective Figures 1 and 2).

Note the thresholds are based on flow and consequently do not take ownership into consideration. This is dealt with when water is shared to downstream users. The off allocation volume is split according to the share of each owner above regulated requirements. Then shared to downstream water users according to sharing rules for the OAN in the OAS associated with the owned share of the off allocation volume.

Off-allocation system components

As stated in Overview, an off-allocation flow sharing system is described by:

1. Resource assessment system (RAS), which it may inherit ownership from
2. An off-allocation system, which is an accounting type within the RAS
3. Off-allocation node (OAN), which contains the water users that send requests for off allocation water
4. Accounts, which are the resource shares and associated usage of account holders/water users associated with the OAN

Figure 3 shows the relationships between the major components of an off-allocation system in a Source model.

Figure 3. Components of an off-allocation system

For each RAS there can only be one OAS, each OAS can have one to many account types (there will be one account type for each OAN created in the scenario). An OAN can only have one account type per RAS but may have other account types as part of other RAS / OAS's (this allows for a single OAN to be used to model off-allocation flows for multiple owners at a single point in the river). For each account type there can be zero to many accounts, but each account has one account holder.

An account holder can be any of the following types of nodes downstream of the OAN which have a demand for off-allocation water:

• Water User Node,
• Bulk Licensing Node,
• Environmental Demand Node,
• Storage Node or
• Off-Allocation Node

The OAS is defined at three different levels:

1. system wide properties are defined at the off-allocation system level,
2. properties of each OAN are defined at the account type level, and
3. individual node/user settings are defined at the account level.

Note that although Ownership is not configured directly for an off-allocation system, off-allocation flow sharing is always used in conjunction with a resource assessment system. When off-allocation sharing is configured for a scenario, it must be linked to an associated resource assessment system by the modeller. If ownership has been configured for the linked resource assessment system then that owner’s share of flow at the OAN is subject to owner shares of the off allocation volume.

Methodology

Variables Used

Variables used are listed in Table2, excluding some temporary variables used locally in some equations; these are defined where they are used.

Table 2 — List of Variables Used

Initialisation Phase

The account type usage is set to the initial usage value.

1. The total usage for all the accounts associated with each OAN is initialised by adding the initial account usage volumes as defined by the modeller (Note: If the account holder is a downstream OAN then the initial usage for the account type is the sum of all water users which have accounts at that OAN account type.)
   
   For each account a at the OAN (i.e. of its account type):

   1. Initialise usage for the account:
      
      

   2. If usage at the OAN is capped, the account is assigned its share of the usage cap, and the remaining balance to be used is determined:
      
      
      

      

2. The system's usage limit (usage remaining under system cap level) is initialised:

   1. If a system cap limit has been specified by the modeller, the remaining system cap is set, based on the cap and usages:
      
      

Flow Phase

During the flow phase, when an OAN is reached the off allocation sharing process is undertaken.  The process is illustrated in Figure 4.  The first step in the process is to check if accounts need to be reset and the second step is to determine the off allocation volume to share. Finally if there is off allocation volume to share this volume is shared to users according to shares and account type sharing rules. Initially the volume is constrained to the system and account type cap. If volume still remains the appropriate sharing threshold and associated priorities are determined. Noting that if the first threshold is not reached then no sharing occurs. Users’ shares are then constrained to their remaining cap. Starting at the highest priority users first, signified by the lowest priority number, group these users together for sharing. Any remain volume is then shared to water users according to their shares. If there is any remaining off allocation and there are more priority levels then the process moves to the next priority level and repeats the process until there is no more off allocation volume of all the users in all priority levels have been satisfied.

Note in the sharing process there may be a distinction between the requests that reach the OAN (target requests) and the requests made at each water user node (source requests). The ratio of these two is known as the delivery efficiency. A number greater than 1 signifies water will be lost and less than 1 that water will be gained, noting the former is more common. It is also possible to override this number with a modeller specified delivery efficiency. The allocation is based on target requests and accounting is based on source requests and account constraints. Consequently the delivery ratio is used to transfer between water that is allocated and water that is accounted at the OAN.

In the case of ownership the off allocation sharing process is repeated for each owner based on the owners share of the off allocation volume.

Figure 4. Flow phase process diagram 

The following steps are performed at each time step at each off-allocation node during the flow phase.

Reset Account Balances

1. Check if the current time step is the start of the water year. If so the usage for each account at the OAN is set to zero.
2. If the usage is reset on spill then check if the specified storage(s) are spilling. If the specified storage(s) are spilling:
   1. If reset when first spill - the usage for each account at the OAN is reset to zero only if the storage(s) were not spilling at the previous time step.
   2. If continuously reset on spill - the usage for each account at the OAN is reset to zero at any time step where there is a spill.
   Note: if no storage is specified then the usage is not reset based on this criterion.

3. Allowing for estimated travel time to each downstream water user of the types listed previously, the balance of the associated account a is set to zero at a future time step.

   

Determine if there is an off-allocation event

This is based on the off-allocation event conditions being met in the current time step.

1. If seasonal start and end dates have been specified by the modeller, a check is made to determine whether the current time step is between the specified start and end dates; if it is between the specified dates then it is in an off-allocation period.
2. Whether the flow at the OAN has exceeded the relevant flow threshold is then checked. If the modeller has specified a different threshold for the start and the end of the event, the starting threshold is only used in the initial time step for the event (e.g. the first day); for subsequent time steps the end threshold is used when determining if in an off-allocation event continues. The modeller will also have defined if the threshold relates to the total flow (see Figure 1) or the flow above orders (see Figure 2). If the modeller has also specified a maximum flow threshold then this is checked at the same time; off-allocation flow is only available when flow is above the lower limit threshold and below the maximum flow threshold (if a maximum flow threshold is specified).

Determine the off-allocation volume

If an off allocation event is triggered then the volume of off-allocation flow for the current model time step (Vol_OffAlloc) is determined at the OAN by the following steps; recalling that the modeller has the option to specify that the calculation of off-allocation volume at the OAN is based on one of the four options illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.

1. The off-allocation volume is calculated according to the selected option:

   • Option 1 (flow exceeds a threshold, all water above regulated requirements is available):
     
     

   • Option 2 (flow exceeds a threshold, all water above the maximum of the regulated requirements and threshold is available)
     
     

   • Option 3 (flow exceeds regulated requirements plus threshold (ΔQ) and all flow above regulated requirements plus ΔQ is available)
     
     

   • Option 4 (flow exceeds regulated requirements plus threshold (ΔQ), all flow above regulated requirements is available):
     
     
     
     If Vol_OffAlloc = 0 then processing for this OAN ends.
     
     

2. If a proportion of the off-allocation volume is specified to be held in reserve (as defined for the off-allocation node's account type) then the available volume of off-allocation flow is reduced in line with that proportion:
   
   
   
   

3. If ownership is assigned to the off-allocation volume:
   
   

Resource Allocation

Requests for off-allocation water are generated during the Order Phase.  Requests are placed by each water user, indicating their requirements for off-allocation water. How these requests are generated by the different water users has been previously discussed (see section on off allocation requests). When ownership is enabled, an identical request is made for each owner associated with the water user. This is done to maximise access to off-allocation water to all owned water.     

By the time a request reaches the off-allocation node, it will be a different volume to the original request as it will have been adjusted (increased) for losses. When ownership is enabled, these losses may differ between owners, according to the modeller's configuration of loss attribution to different owners.

The off-allocation node (OAN) distributes water available between accounts according to their share of requested water. The amount distributed to each account may be limited by an account cap and a user limit, and can also be limited by a system cap. It also cannot exceed the volume requested by the associated water user via a supply point, downstream OAN, bulk licensing, environmental demand or storage node. The balance of an off-allocation account is therefore referred to as its 'usage', as all water in this category of account must be requested before it is assigned.

When ownership is enabled, too much water is likely to be distributed as the request is duplicated for each owner. It is possible for one account at a node to have excess water and for others to have insufficient, as there may be more of the associated owners' water in the river, or owner accounts can have different caps. Where this occurs, an owner's off-allocation water in excess of their request or cap may be assigned to other owner's accounts at the same water user. Any excess off-allocation water that remains is then re-assigned to other water users.

The following steps are performed at each OAN to calculate the off-allocation volume and allocate it to accounts.

1. Save each owner's request for off-allocation water (the volume at the OAN; i.e. adjusted for losses).
   
   
   

2. If ownership is enabled and there is more than one owner, the owner loss contribution, Loss(wu, owner), in meeting the request for each water user at the OAN, are determined. Determine the loss contribution of each owner describes how this is done.
   
   
3. The volume of off-allocation water that is available, Vol_OffAlloc , is calculated. See Determine the off-allocation volume below for details.
   
   
4. The off-allocation water is allocated. If ownership is not enabled or there is only one owner, the steps below are only performed once. When there are multiple owners, they are repeated until either there is no off-allocation water to share, or all requests are met, or the system's usage limit has been reached (if there is such a limit).
   
   

   1. A check is made to see whether there is any off-allocation water to allocate, or not. If there is no off-allocation water (remaining) to share (ie. if Vol_OffAlloc = 0  or Vol_OffAlloc < lowest volume allocation level ), the allocation procedure stops here.

   2. How much of the total requested volume at the OAN can be met/supplied is determined.

      
      

      If met ≤ 0 , the allocation procedure stops here.

      
      

   3. If there is a usage cap defined for the off-allocation system, a check is made to see if there is remaining usage capacity. This is calculated based on the current usages of all accounts a at every OAN in the off-allocation system:

      
      

      If LimitUsage(system) = 0 , there is no remaining system cap to share, so the allocation procedure stops here.

   4. The off-allocation delivery efficiency is determined for each account using the following equation:
      
      
      where a is the account for a downstream water user. (Recall that each water user which requires off-allocation flow to be allocated to them from a particular OAN in the river system holds one off-allocation account at that node.)
      
      

   5. Determine the maximum volume of a request remaining to be fulfilled for each off-allocation account a at downstream water users:

      1. If there is a usage cap configured, it is the smaller of the request and the remaining usage cap
         
         

      2. Otherwise, it is the requested volume
         
         
         
         
      3. If no account has LimitUsage(a) > 0 , the allocation procedure stops here.
         
         
   6. Off-allocation water is allocated to accounts at the OAN. At every priority level, in order from highest to lowest, the following occurs:

Remaining off-allocation water is allocated to accounts at the given priority level according to account shares. Allocate off-allocation water to accounts based on shares describes how this is done.

1. 1. At this stage the OAN may have met each of the water user's owner requests and thus supplied more water than the water user requires – as the total request was placed for every owner. The steps that follow check for this and re-distribute any excess allocation – firstly to other water users of the same ownership, then to other water users. The process depends on how many owners there are:
      
      If ownership is disabled or there is only one owner, usage is simply updated:
      
      
      Otherwise (i.e. there is more than one owner):

      1. Any excess is redistributed according to the method described in Re-distribute off-allocation excess.
         
         
      2. The usage for this round of allocation is updated
         
         
         
         
      3. Return to step 3. The next round will redistribute any losses met by other owners to water user accounts with insufficient water to meet requests.
         
         

2. Account balances for every account at the OAN are updated
   
   

Determine the loss contribution of each owner

Every owner at a water user is assigned the same volume of opportunistic requests from downstream water users – this is so any additional water can be used to fulfil the request as it becomes available, regardless of ownership. Losses are incurred between the water user's location and the OAN. The total loss is added on to every owner's request. When the water is allocated at the OAN to owner accounts to meet the request, each owner's allocated volume needs to be adjusted for losses met by other owners. In order to do this, it is necessary to have established the owner's 'loss contribution' – i.e. their share of the loss.

This is done either by:

• Keeping track of the owner's share of the loss volume for each owner request – i.e. adding on their loss at every node and link between the OAN and the water user the request originates from
  

or

• Using a matrix to solve the owner's share:
  
  

Equalise shares of off-allocation water

Since Source version v4.10.2, this function is no longer supported. The user can refer to the previous version of SRG for the details (e.g. v4.9).

Allocate off-allocation water to accounts based on shares

Firstly, at the current priority level, p :

Then for each account a, at the current priority level p , off-allocation water is allocated to accounts via the following steps:

1. Limit the share volume for an account (Note that if LimitUsage(a) is not specified by the modeller its value defaults to a very big number):
   
   
   
   
   

2. Reduce the volume of off-allocation water available to share
   
   
   
   
3. Calculate the volume that this represents at the source
   
   
   
   

4. Calculate allocations for the account for each user and adjust the usage limits if required.
   
   
   
   
   
   

5. If a system cap has been specified and would be exceeded by allocations in the current time step, then allocations are reduced to fit within cap (otherwise this step is skipped).

   1. Sum the allocations for each user in the current priority level
      
      

   2. Calculate the volume by which the system cap would be exceeded based on potential allocations
      
      

   3. Calculate the proportion that each allocation would have to be reduced by to meet the system cap restriction
      
      

   4. For each OAS node account at the current priority level allocations are adjusted so that they do not exceed the system cap, taking into account the efficiency factors, then the limits for the adjustment are updated:
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      

Re-distribute off-allocation excess

When there are multiple owners, excess water may have been allocated as the water user's requested volume was duplicated for each owner. This method redistributes the excess, then determines the new excess volume for each owner once losses met by other owners at all water users are taken into account.

1. The excess off-allocation volume available for re-distribution is initialised:
   
   

2. For each water user, excess off-allocation water is redistributed:

   1. The access ratio for each off-allocation account and the total of these account ratios for each water user are determined, 
      where a is the account for water user and owner owner.
      
      

   2. The access ratio is checked to determine whether water in excess of the total request has been allocated:

      1. If AccessRatio ≤ 1 , there is no excess to redistribute. The remaining request to be met is calculated as:
         
         
         Skip to the next water user.
         
         

      2. Otherwise processing continues in order to redistribute excess between owner accounts.
         
         
      Distribution of a water user's excess off-allocation water
      Assuming that a water user will try and maximise its access to off allocation water, Source uses each owner's off-allocation water on the basis of its allocation (an indication of licence priority), or its remaining capacity to receive water if accounts are capped. The account with the largest allocation has this adjusted first until it is the same as the next largest, and so on. This cycle is repeated until all the excess off allocation water is allocated or accounts have no remaining capacity to receive water.
      
      
   3. The new allocation for each water user's off-allocation account is initialised:
      
      

      1. If accounts are capped:
         
         

         

      2. Otherwise
         
         
         where a is the account for water user and owner owner.

         

   4. The owner accounts for each water user are ranked in order of allocation, newAlloc(owner), from highest to lowest.
      
      

   5. Excess is allocated to owners in the ranked order until the total remaining request volume is met, but the allocation is equalised so that lower priority owners also get some water – the result is a new 'equalised' allocation, newAlloc(owner).

Note that this process is no longer activated since Source V4.10.2.

remvol= Requestwu
do i= 2, nowner
	sum= 0
	do j= 1, i-1
		sum= sum +rembal(ptr(j))
	end do
	vol= min(remvol,sum-rembal(ptr(j)*(i-1))
	do j= 1, i-1
		rembal(ptr(j))= rembal(ptr(j))-vol/(i-1)
	end do
	remvol= remvol - vol
	If( remvol <= 0 ) exit
end do
if( remvol > 0 ) then
	sum = 0
	do j= 1, nowner
		sum= sum + rembal(ptr(j))
	end do
	vol= min(remvol,sum)
	do j= 1, nowner
		rembal(ptr(j))=rembal(ptr(j))-vol/nowner
	end do
	remvol= remvol- vol
end if

1. The allocation for this time step is updated for the re-distribution: 

   

2. The remaining volume of off-allocation water not required by this water user is added to the total to be reallocated to other water users:

   

3. The off-allocation volumes are adjusted for losses met by other owners:

   Every owner's ratio of the total off-allocation volume is calculated:
   The loss met by every other owner is their loss volume (calculated in Step 2 under Flow Phase (Resource Assessment and Allocation)) multiplied by their share of the off-allocation volume. This means that for a given owner, the off-allocation volume adjusted for other owner losses is:
   
   

1. Indicate that the water user's request has been met: 
   
   

   Request(a,owner) = 0

Examples

Opportunistic requests in parallel systems

Figure 5 below shows two examples of where a water user node can be supplied from multiple off allocation nodes. The first is by passing requests up both branches of a confluence and the other are off allocation in separate river reaches.

Figure 5.  Examples of a water user node being supplied from multiple off allocation nodes 

In both of these situations the total opportunistic request is passed to both off allocation nodes. The off allocation node that is processed first, attempts to allocate the full requirement. Any remaining off allocation requirement may be met by the second off allocation node.
If there are different travel times between the off allocation nodes and the supply points, the furthest off allocation node will be processed first. The allocation is made to the user's account for the required delivery time step. When the second off allocation node is processed, allocations are made with respect to the same delivery time step.

If the travel times are the same, the order in which nodes are processed is based on rules specified by the modeller.

Sharing between off allocation reaches

Each OAN processes the orders for its direct users downstream (including the next downstream OAN) and passes the combined orders up to the next OAN (if there is one). This means that it is possible to share off allocation water between multiple downstream reaches.
In the example illustrated in Figure 6, below, OAN3 has a share component in OAN2 which also has a share component in OAN1. This means that the off-allocation requirements of water user 3 and 4 are accumulated up the system and are reported as the off-allocation requirement of OAN2. This means that the allocation of off-allocation water to reach 1 takes into consideration the downstream requirements. It is possible to give priority access to downstream requirements by assigning the highest priority to OAN2 in the OAN1 allocation table.
Note that while OAN1 assigns a volume of off-allocation water to OAN2, the processing of OAN2 may result in a change in the volume of off-allocation water available to that reach as the rules specific to OAN2 are used to calculate the available water.

Figure 6 — Example of multiple off allocation reaches

Off allocation and storages

It is assumed that any storage which is downstream of an OAN is a re-regulating storage. The modeller can define an opportunistic target volume for such storages. All users, including re-regulating storages, have equal priority access to any off-allocation water by default; however, the modeller can customise the priority rules through the volume allocation table.

Defining Complex Rules for Event Triggers

In practice, complex rules can be used to define off-allocation events. These can be replicated in Source through use of the function editor to define event triggers. Some example rules which can be replicated using the function editor are as follows:

Flow thresholds at multiple gauge nodes: the function would check that the required flow threshold at all these was exceeded at the previous time step.

Water Account/Allocation Triggers - In some systems, off allocation event declaration depends on the volume in user accounts. This can be replicated using the function editor by referring to the total account type balance, for example for general security accounts.

Storage Volume Triggers - Off-allocation flow events will be triggered only if flows cannot be regulated through downstream storages. This can occur for storages in the current off-allocation reach or in downstream off-allocation reaches. If only the current reach needs to be considered, then the event trigger does not need to account for the available storage airspace. This is because the re-regulating storage is given priority in the allocation of off-allocation water. If, however, storages in downstream reaches are to be considered, then the trigger will have to use an function to evaluate the available airspace in the storages at the previous time step. A threshold is returned such that the volume required to fill the storages in the downstream off-allocation reaches is not made available to the current reach.

Water Quality Conditions -In some cases the declaration of an off-allocation flow sharing event may be dependent on water quality conditions prevailing at the time. To model this in Source the function editor can be used to compare the relevant water quality value at the previous time step with a modeller specified reference value. If the water quality condition is satisfied then the corresponding flow value is used as the basis of a threshold (as per Figures 1 and 2) for determining off-allocation.

Environmental Conditions - The declaration of an off-allocation flow event may be dependent upon whether the taking of water will prevent the beneficial watering of an environmental value or asset. This can be replicated by developing a water user with an environmental demand model. The highest allocation priority should be assigned to the associated Supply Point. It should be noted that if this Supply Point is in a downstream off-allocation reach, the downstream OAN would have to be assigned highest priority when evaluating the current off-allocation reach. This also means that other off-allocation demands in the downstream reach, such as for irrigation, would get highest priority, which may not be desirable.

Data

Input data
Details on input data are provided in the Source User Guide.

Parameters or settings

Off-allocation System Parameters
Parameters input by the modeller at the system level apply across all OANs and account types created within the off-allocation system (OAS).
Table 3 — Off-allocation System Configuration - Parameters

Off-allocation Account Type Parameters
Parameters input by the modeller at the account type level affect all associated accounts.
Table 4 —Account Type Configuration - Parameters

Table 5 — Volume Allocation Table – Parameters

Parameters for Off-allocation Accounts
Account Type Accounts Table – Parameters

Table 6 — Off Allocation Node – Parameters

Output data

Table 7 — Recorded variables

Reference list

Bibliography