In the context of scarce water resources, the effective use of the available water is of particular importance. The feasibility study of the simulation-based operation of Lake Tiberias shows the existing potential of a predictively optimized water release to the Lower Jordan Valley.
Considering the water scarcity in the MENA region, the most effective and sustainable management of available freshwater resources is of great importance. This particularly concerns Lake Tiberias, located in northern Israel, which is the largest surface freshwater reservoir in the region. Besides its relevance for Israel, the lake is also an important source of fresh water for the Jordanian agriculture in the Jordan Valley. However, currently no water management tool exists that takes a transboundary water supply of the lake to the Jordan Valley into consideration, although the importance of coordinated water release will further increase. In exchange for solar energy, water transfers from Israel to Jordan could increase from annually 100 million m³ to 300 million m³ in the future. To coordinate these current and future water transfers, the potential of an integral decision support tool for Lake Tiberias based on model predictive control (MPR) is studied.
As a computer-based decision support system, the developed tool considers not only the lake but also the Lower Jordan River and Jordan's King Abdullah Canal with its tributaries and abstraction points. With the predictive control of the tool, an optimized control strategy for the water release into the Jordan Valley can be determined in advance according to the defined objectives. This enables a short-term response to water management developments and a time- and location-accurate use of available water resources. As a feasibility study, the rough first model created thereby demonstrates the great potential of a transboundary and MPR-based decision support system for the water release of Lake Tiberias. However, due to the predictive control method, predictive data of the water management system’s in- and outflows must be available for the operations staff.
