Modeling Water Rights Allocation in the South Saskatchewan River Basin in Canada

Two multiple objective optimization methods for water rights allocation, the priority-based maximal multiperiod network flow programming (PMMNF) method and lexicographic minimax water shortage ratios (LMWSR) method are applied to the South Saskatchewan river basin in southern Alberta, Canada. Population growth and economic expansion are straining water resources in this basin. Irrigation, municipal and industrial uses, and hydropower generation are the major water demands competing for limited water resources. The case study shows that the PMMNF method usually produces large differences in the satisfaction ratios among uses in times of water shortages since it is based on the priority concept. On the other hand, the allocations by LMWSR lead to fairer distributed satisfaction ratios because it adopts the lexicographic minimax equity concept and thus has water shortages shared among all the water demands of various types of uses.