Application of HEC-RAS model for adaptive water allocation in a Large-Scale Rice Irrigation Scheme

Water allocation is a key component of good water management in an irrigation system. Water imbalance between upstream and downstream has been a major issue at Tanjung-Karang Rice Irrigation Scheme Malaysia. This study applied the HEC-RAS model to estimate water for supply and analysed its allocation to the demand in the scheme. Water demand was computed based on water requirement, effective rainfall and seepage/percolation. Results of R², NSE, PBIAS and RSR during the model calibration and validation were 0.66, 0.64, 0.94 and 0.60; and 0.65, 0.59, 1.77 and 0.64, respectively. The irrigation scheme was under-supplied from January-March and over-supplied from April-June during the off-season. While in the main-season was under-supplied from July-September and over-supplied from October-December. Similarly, the excess water during the off and main seasons for the period was 40.10 and 52.40 Mm³ respectively. Whiles the deficit water during the same seasons was 52.46 and 53.14 Mm³, respectively. This suggests providing an adequate storage facility, which could store excess water during low water demand and use it in the period of water shortage. The developed model could therefore assist in estimating the over/under-supply with respect to the demand thereby storing the excess for use during the period of high demand.