An expert system approach for water management in case of drought

The reservoirs designed for the purpose of flood control have to face operational problems during periods of drought. Based on the drought monitoring method using the five indicators, streamflow, precipitation, temperature, groundwater and lake levels, the study developed an expert system for the water management of the four flood control reservoirs in case of drought. The developed system was based on the combination of the rules and heuristic knowledge from expert opinions, the control manuals of reservoirs involved, and a developed optimization model. Daily drought conditions were evaluated by the monitoring method and the recommendations of water release from each reservoir were then made by the developed system. The comparisons between the recommended water releases and their counterparts of the optimization model and the actual operation of reservoirs were made. It was found that the developed expert system has the advantage of flexibility, making water release recommendations over a strictly mathematical model