Resource assessment

Many regulated river systems support several resource assessment schemes to share the available resource (water) among users. In Source, a resource assessment system:

• is associated with only one scenario in a project, whereas a scenario may be associated with one or more resource assessment systems;
• can only have one owner, but any given owner or water user may be affected by more than one system; and
• supports multiple account types.

Configuring Resource assessment

In Source, choose Edit » Resource Assessment... to open the Resource Assessment Explorer, which is used to configure and manage different aspects of resource assessment. Figure 1 shows all the contextual menus available for each level in the resource assessment hierarchy. If an item is available at different levels, it has the same contextual menu. For example, the Usage Limit item under Account type has the same contextual menu as Usage Limit under Accounts.

There are three types of resource assessment systems in Source:

• Annual accounting - This is a custom assessment method for regulated water. Refer toAnnual accounting for configuration details;
• Continuous accounting - This replicates the resource assessment system used in the Gwydir and Namoi in NSW. Refer toContinuous accounting; and
• Continuous sharing - In this system, the behaviour of a water user has as little effect as possible on other water users within that system. Refer t oContinuous sharing.

Each of the systems has various attributes. These must be configured individually and are described next.

Accounts

Each water user can have one or more accounts linked to it, which allows it to request resources. Note that:

• Each account can have only one water user associated with it;
• You must enter the number of shares that the account has in the resource assessment system; and
• You can specify an opening account balance.

Usage limits

You can limit water usage for all accounts by absolute volume or a per-unit-share, which can cover a water year or movable time window. You can define any number of usage limits.

Account type trigger

A trigger initiates or cancels certain actions for an account type. It can be set to activate on a particular date, a year start or end or the passing (either raising or falling) through a specified storage water level. When a trigger is activated it will initiate a pre-defined action, which is defined in the panel on the right hand side of the Triggers window. Possible actions include:

• Transferring a percentage of water to another account;
• Levelling accounts;
• Writing off accounts; and
• Truncating or assigning accounts.

An account type can have several triggers, each designed to initiate a particular action.

Off-allocation system

You can add an off-allocation system to a resource assessment system. Refer to the Off Allocation node for more information.

Linking resource assessment systems

You can link two resource assessment systems using the Function Editor. Refer to Time of Evaluation for more details.

Ownership and resource assessment

Resource assessment systems are generally used with ownership when one owner has borrowed from a second owner, and payback is required. One method of paying back water can be accomplished through a resource assessment system. Refer to Borrow and Payback Systems, Distribution Systems for further details on configuring this arrangement in Source.