Intercomparison of Generic Simulation Models for Water Resource Systems

Particularly in water resource systems that frequently experience severe droughtevents, generic simulation models provide useful information for the definition of droughtmitigation measures. Among them, AQUATOOL (Valencia Polytechnic University),MODSIM (Colorado State University), RIBASIM (DELTARES), WARGI-SIM(University of Cagliari) and WEAP (Stockholm Environmental Institute) are hereconsidered for the preliminary analysis of alternative plans and policies. This paper is aboutmodelling in practice more than in theory: the emphasis is on the application of thesesimulation models to a multireservoir and multiuse water system in Southern Italy wherefrequent droughts in the last two decades have required the adoption of unsustainabletemporary user-supply restrictions. While each model has its own characteristics, theproposed application comparison does not identify all the features of each model, but rathergives general information on the identification and evaluation of operating policies with theaid of these simulation models.