The Computer Aided River Management (CARM) project was recently awarded the top honour at the Australian Water Association’s 2012 Water Awards for New South Wales (NSW), in the Innovation and Infrastructure category. The CARM project is funded by Water for Rivers and is being executed by the NSW State Water Corporation. DHI and water metering contractor – Comdain – are major project partners.
The AUD 65 million project is set to bring water savings and improved service to irrigators and other water users along the Murrumbidgee River system. CARM involves a series of initiatives on the Murrumbidgee River to make it one of the world’s most efficient and best managed working river systems.
Our involvement has been in the provision of a suite of advanced water modelling tools integrated with a range of real time data sources:
- catchment rainfall data
- extraction metering
- water orders
- river flows and levels
The models are used to automatically compute the dam and regulator releases needed to meet user demands along the river. The MIKE by D HI modelling tools incorporated in CARM include:
- NAM – for rainfall runoff generation
- MIKE 11 – to describe river hydraulics
- MIKE SHE – for the simulation of groundwater interactions and evapotranspiration losses
The CARM framework is built around our MIKE Customized Decision Support System framework.
(L-R) John Skinner (Water for Rivers), David Anderson (NSW State Water Corporation), Terry van Kalken (DHI Australia) |
State Water Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brett Tucker said the corporation was extremely pleased to win the highly coveted award. He added, “CARM is a world-class development designed to maximise the efficiency of the Murrumbidgee River system”.
The judges also had high praise for the project:
“Genuine innovation, nothing else on this scale globally as far as I’ve been able to ascertain”
“This project has the potential to make a real difference to water management on a global scale”
The CARM project will be a finalist in the national Australian Water Association Awards, which will be presented at the Ozwater’13 international water conference in Perth in May.