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Application of Mike Basin for Water Management

Strategies in a Watershed
a

Manoj K. Jha & Ashim Das Gupta

a

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

IWRA, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Bangkok, Thailand

Published online: 22 Jan 2009.

To cite this article: Manoj K. Jha & Ashim Das Gupta (2003): Application of Mike Basin for Water Management Strategies in a
Watershed, Water International, 28:1, 27-35
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International Water Resources Association

Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, Pages 2735, March 2003

Application of Mike Basin for Water Management

Strategies in a Watershed

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Manoj K. Jha, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA, and Ashim Das Gupta, Fellow
IWRA, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract: Modeling at the basin scale provides essential information to policy makers in their
decisions on allocation of water resources in the basin. This paper describes the application of a basin
scale simulation model, Mike Basin, to the Mun river basin located in northeastern Thailand. Monthly
simulation was carried out based on the water availability and utilization using hydrological data from
1965 through 1997. Climatic analysis found high seasonal variation: wet season water availability is
more than six times dry season availability. Event-based reliability calculations of irrigation and water
supply systems of the basin indicated that the existing level of demand has reasonable wet season water
availability, but limited dry season availability. Moreover, sensitivity analysis found 80 percent reliable
cropping intensity in wet season and only 12 percent in dry season. A proper management approach
developed from this analysis may provide a basis for a decision for policy makers in relation to the
optimal allocation of water resources.
Keywords: Water resources management, basin-scale simulation model, Mike Basin, tropical basin,
event-based reliability, water allocation.

Introduction
Water is a basic necessity for sustaining life and developing society. The increasing pressure of competing
usage, degradation of scarce resources, and growing population pose a serious and growing threat to the sustainable
development of water resources and therefore requires
proper management for its development. The allocation of
water resources in the river basin is one of the critical
issues. For definite estimates of water allocation policies,
and hence the potential of improving system performance,
an integrated analysis at basin-scale is important, where
individual water related sectors, such as agriculture, municipal, and industrial water supply are brought together in
a framework for an integrated analysis. In this regard,
mathematical models provide the opportunity for the wellstructured basin-wide analyses of water availability and
water demands and offer a framework for a coordinated
planning and management.
Basin-scale models have been widely used to assess
the performance of water resources systems. They use
hydrologic input data and simulate the behavior of various
hydrologic, water quality, economic, or other variables under a fixed set of water allocation policies. A distinguishing
feature of these simulation models is the ability to assess
water resources system responses to extremes, non-equilibrium conditions, and thereby to identify the system components more prone to failure. There are a large number
27

of basin-scale simulation models that have been developed for a wide range of purposes (Wurbs, 1995; Loucks
et al., 1995; DHI, 1995 and 1997; Jamieson and Fedra,
1996a; Arnold et al., 1998).
The Mun river basin, approximately 70,000 km2 in area
and located in Northeast Thailand (Figure 1), is known to
have high seasonal and spatial climatic variations (Binnie
and Partners, 1995). These conditions cause major problems in the efficient use of water. The objectives of this
study were to analyze the water resources system of the
Mun river basin and to establish key management strategies that will help water managers achieve optimal allocation of water resources in the basin. For this purpose, a
basin-scale simulation model Mike Basin (DHI, 1997) that
basically performs water quantity mass balance approach
was found suitable. The model was applied using hydrological data of 33 years (1965 to 1997) based on the availability and utilization of the water resources in the basin.
The outcome of analyses will provide a decision basis for
policy makers in relation to the optimal allocation of water
resources in the Mun rive basin.

Materials and Method

Description of the Study Area
The Mun River Basin constitutes approximately 70,000
km2 and lies between latitudes 14 and 16, and longitudes
10130 and 10530 . In an average year, the basin drains

28

M.K. Jha and A. Das Gupta

N
N

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200
km.

Middle Mun
Lower Mun
Upper Mun

100
km.

Figure 1. Mun River Basin, Thailand.

out approximately 25,000 106 m3 , which is equivalent to an

annual runoff of 210 mm or 800 m3 /s. Roughly one-third
of this comes from the Chi River, which joins the Mun
River about 100 km upstream of its confluence with the
Mekong River (see Figure1). The total draining area is
120,000 km2 .
About 12 percent of the basin area is covered by forest, 80 percent is utilized for agricultural purposes, and the
rest is covered by water, surbs, and dwellings. Irrigation
is the major concern in the basin. The total irrigated area
in the basin is approximately 257,000 ha, and a recent study
(Binnie and Partners, 1995) has indicated a potential of
additional 28,000 ha irrigation area. The irrigation schemes

are gravity irrigation schemes (developed by Royal Irrigation Department) and pumped irrigation schemes (developed by Department of Energy Development and
Promotion). The majority of the irrigation area (more than
90 percent) is cultivated with paddy rice crops. Most of
the irrigation water used in the basin is from the surface
storage reservoirs. There are seven large irrigation
schemes (irrigation area more than 12,800 ha) and all are
associated with reservoirs and large water diversion
schemes. The detailed list of irrigation areas and the corresponding sources of water withdrawal can be found in
Jha (1999). Use of groundwater resources for irrigation
was limited due to poor yield and quality. More than about

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

29

Description of the Model

Mike Basin, developed by the Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI, 1997), was used in the simulation of water resources system of the Mun river basin. It is a basin-scale
simulation model and accommodates a basin-wide representation of water availability and water demand. The
model is structured as a network model in which the rivers
and their main tributaries are represented by a network
consisting of branches and nodes. The branches represent individual stream sections while the nodes represent
confluence, locations where certain water activities may
occur, or important locations where model results are required. Mike Basin can accommodate multi-purpose, mul-

Runoff, 106 m 3/month

60 percent of the area has freshwater and the remainder

has saline water. The total amount of usable groundwater
is about 90 million cubic meters per year, which is less
than one percent of the annual surface runoff. Wells have
very low yield of 100 to 150 m3 /day/well due to low storage and transmissivity values.
The basin was divided into three parts: Upper, Middle,
and Lower for climatic analysis (Figure 1). More than 50
rainfall gauging stations were selected from about 100 stations considering the length and continuity of the data. The
arithmetic mean method was used to estimate the areal
average rainfall in the three parts of the basin. The average annual rainfall over a period of 33 years (1965 to 1997)
for the Upper, Middle, and Lower Mun were found to be
1,059, 1,284, and 1,651 mm, respectively. The highest annual rainfall (1,400 to 1,800 mm) occurs on the eastern
side of the basin (Lower Mun) and lowest (950 to 1,250
mm) occurs on the western side (Upper Mun). Approximately 85 percent of the annual rainfall occurs between
May and October. Figure 2 shows the spatial and seasonal variation of the rainfall. Similar characteristic was
also shown by streamflows (Figure 3). These characteristics cause major problems of the efficient use of surface
water. About 40 percent of the households suffer acute
seasonal shortages of drinking water. A major constraint
to industrial development is also the lack of available water (Binnie and Partners, 1995).

300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Jan Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug Sep

Oct Nov Dec

Figure 3. Streamflow seasonal pattern at Station M.2.

tiple-reservoir systems. The purpose of individual reservoirs is to simulate the performance for specified operation policies using associated rule curves. Operation rules
are defined to include storage target levels and various
storage allocation zones. A conveyance loss factor can be
specified for each reservoir user. Multiple-reservoir systems allow for specifying water extraction from several
reservoirs to a specific demand scheme in order of priority.
Figure 4 shows a schematic of the modeling concept.
The major inputs are the hydrological data and water demand data. The model output includes the magnitude and
frequency of any water shortages as well as simulated
time-series of flows at all nodes, providing information on
the performance of each reservoir and water supply
schemes. Mike Basin has been coupled with ArcView interface enabling the model to be user-friendly and powerful in handling spatial data. The special features of the
model include watershed delineation, priority-based allocation principles, water supply and irrigation allocation, low
flow controls, river routing, and many more. However, there
are certain limitations such as it lacks optimization procedures for reservoir operation, and it is incapable of simulation of erosion/sediment transport. Moreover, the model is
not well documented for the equations and methods it uses
in flow and water quality modeling. It comes as a commercial package.

Water Use Simulation Model

Reservoir
data

Upper Mun

Middle Mun

Network
configuration

Lower Mun

Reservoir
submodel

400
350

Rainfall, mm

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Application of Mike Basin for Water Management Strategies in a Watershed

Meteorological
timeseries

Hydrological
timeseries

300

Irrigation
submodel

250
200

Water supply &

irrigation data

150
100
50
0
Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Figure 2. Seasonal and spatial variation of rainfall in the Mun River

Basin.

Simulated timeseries of runoff

Performance of reservoirs and
irrigation schemes

Figure 4. Concept of Mike Basin water allocation model.

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

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30

M.K. Jha and A. Das Gupta

Resources and Demand Assessment

Royal Irrigation Department (RID), Meteorological
Department (MD), and National Office of Statistics (NOS)
were the main sources for data collection. The major input data prepared for the model application were
streamflow data at required points, irrigation water demand data for existing and proposed irrigation schemes,
and water supply demand data for domestic, municipal,
and industrial usages. These data were prepared on a monthly
basis for 33 years (1965 to 1997). Often, streamflow gauging stations did not match with the points where the data
was needed. Therefore, streamflow data of gauging stations were projected to the required points using areaweighted runoff factor. The streamflow data at a required
point were calculated by multiplying the streamflow data
of nearby gauging station by runoff factor.

R po int
in which,

F=

needed

= F *R gauging station

Pguaging station * Agauging station

Ppoint

* Apo int
needed

(1)

(2)

needed

where R is the average annual runoff volume (= P*A); F

is the runoff factor; P is the average annual precipitation;
and A is the catchment area.
The irrigation water requirements of the existing and
proposed irrigation schemes in the basin were estimated
using CROPWAT model (FAO, 1992). CROPWAT is a
computer program to calculate crop water requirements
using crop and climate data. This model uses PenmanMonteith equation, which estimates actual evapotranspiration (i.e., net irrigation requirement) from the heat-balance
equation. Net irrigation requirement is based on the effective rainfall, which, for this basin, was assumed as 80 percent of the average monthly rainfall (Akanda, 1995). The
gross irrigation requirement was then calculated using irrigation efficiency.
Gross irrigation requiremen t =

Net irrigaiton requiremen t (3)

Irrigation efficiency

Irrigation efficiency is the product of conveyance, distribution, and application efficiency. It was taken as 45
percent for the Mun river basin (Rosegrant and Shetty,
1994).
The domestic and municipal water supply demand and
industrial water supply demand were lumped to get one
unit of water supply demand. The industrial water demand
was directly taken from the previous study report by Royal
Irrigation Department (Binnie and Partners, 1995). The
domestic and municipal water demands were calculated
from the demographic observations. A per capita withdrawal for domestic and municipal usage was taken as 31
m3 /year (i.e., approximately 96 liters per capita per day)
for the entire basin (UNDP, 1994).

Modeling Approach
The natural river system of the Mun river basin was
schematized and represented with a node-branch structure. A total of 68 nodes and corresponding 67 branches
were established based on the river network configuration (Figure 5). Branches represent the main river and its
main tributaries, and nodes represent major river
confluences, reservoirs, and control points for offtake.
Offtake points were selected on the main river and/or tributaries to release water to cover downstream irrigation and
water supply demands. In the simulation, only two major
water demand sectors were considered: irrigation and
water supply for domestic, municipal, and industrial usage. Total irrigation areas (exiting and proposed) within
the basin were lumped into 33 irrigation schemes. These
schemes do not differ due to their irrigation systems, but
their differing points of water withdrawals from the river
or reservoirs. The major irrigation system in the basin is
gravity flow (normally from reservoirs). Similarly, 24
lumped water supply schemes were established based on
different water withdrawal points. The schemes were then
allocated to the nearby nodes for their water withdrawals,
and return flows from established schemes were directed
to the immediate downstream nodes. Monthly simulation
was carried out using hydrological data of 33 years (1965
to 1997) considering the downstream requirements for
water supply and irrigation as the first and second priorities respectively. The model performs a basic water quantity mass balance approach at every node. The simulation
criteria were as follows:
Simulation period: 1965 to 1997 (33 years)
Time step: monthly
Cropping intensity = 120 percent (wet season 100
percent; dry season 20 percent)
Irrigation efficiency = 45 percent
Irrigation return flow = 20 percent
Water supply return flow = 50 percent
Priority for water withdrawal: first is water supply, and
second is irrigation
The outputs from the model describe the response of
the basin-system and give a clear picture of the water
resources status of the basin. The performance of each
reservoir and demand scheme was then analyzed using
the concept of event-based reliability (Hashimoto et al.,
1982) a hydrologic performance indicator. Event-based
reliability of each irrigation and water supply scheme was
calculated as the probability of non-failure events:
Event based reliabilit y =

Total number of non failure months

* 100
Total number of months

(4)

The criterion for the failure month was established

based on the discussion with experienced researchers. For

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

31

Figure 5. Model schematization of the Mun River configuration.

irrigation schemes, a failure month indicates a water demand deficit exceeding 20 percent. Similarly a limit of 10
percent was assumed for water supply schemes. The calculated reliability value for individual schemes (from Equation 4) indicates that the demand was satisfied for a certain
portion of the simulated time. For example, 50 percent
reliability indicates that the water demand was satisfied
half of the time (within simulated period). Then, overall
performance of the entire water demand sector (irrigation
and water supply) was calculated using Equation 5.
System reliability =

Number of reliable schemes

*100
(5)
Total number of schemes

Furthermore, simulation scenarios were developed to

analyze the system performance. Two variables were selected for this purpose: cropping intensity and irrigation
efficiency. Several simulation runs were carried out to
establish a reliable cropping intensity (i.e. the cropping intensity that satisfies the irrigation demand for more than
80 percent of the time) for the three parts of the basin
since they differ widely climatically. Effect of irrigation
efficiency on the reliabilities of the irrigation schemes was
also analyzed.

Results and Discussion

The cropping calendar for the basin consists of two
phases of rice planting: major rice growing season is 150
days from July to December, and second rice growing
season is 105 days from mid-January to May. Figure 6

shows the irrigation water requirements for paddy rice as

calculated with CROPWAT. These are the values averaged from 33 years of monthly estimation. The irrigation
water demands were found higher during January through
April. The demand ranges from a maximum value of 9.5
mm/day in July to a minimum of 0.3 mm/day in September. The trend is consistent with the rainfall trend in the
basin. The demand variation among three parts of the basin is not significant except in August and September where
rainfall greatly varies.
Table 1 shows the total water demand in the basin
including demand of water supply for domestic, municipal,
and industrial usage. The total irrigation water demand
was found to be 93 percent and the remaining is covered
by other sectors. These findings clearly show that the irrigation is the major concern in the basin and the water
usage for domestic, municipal, and industrial purposes does
not have a significant impact on the overall water balance
of the basin.
Upper Mun
Irrigation water requirements,
mm/day

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Application of Mike Basin for Water Management Strategies in a Watershed

Middle Mun

Lower Mun

Jun

Aug

10
8
6
4
2
0
Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jul

Sep

Oct

Nov

Figure 6. Irrigation requirements calculated by CROPWAT.

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

Dec

32

M.K. Jha and A. Das Gupta

Table 1. Water Demand of the Mun River Basin
Demand (106 m3 /year)

Irrigation
Domestic and Municipal
Industrial
Total

Upper Mun

Middle Mun

Lower Mun

1,876
89
8
1,973

1,289
156
13
1,458

722
36
1
759

Percentage
Demand
%

Total Demand
(106 m3 /year)
3,887
281
22
4,190

93
6.5
0.5
100

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(1) Data are the average of 33 years (1965 to 1997).

(2) Catchment areas (km2 ): Upper = 20,330, Middle = 36,390, and Lower = 12,850.
(3) Irrigation areas (km2 ): Upper = 1,287, Middle = 1,044, and Lower = 524.

Table 2 gives a clear picture of the water resource

status in the basin. The water demand was found highest
in the Upper Mun but with the lowest water availability
among three parts of the basin. There is not much difference between the water availability and water demand on
an annual basis. The comparison of demand and supply
shows minor shortages. This indicates that demand should
not be increased in the Upper Mun unless more water is
made available through improved management options.
The other parts of the basin (Middle and Lower Mun)
have enormous water availability with very low water demand, but inadequate supply against demand urges a need
for management to trap the water. The Middle Mun provides less than half the needed water during the dry season, thus discouraging dry season cropping. Possibilities
for new storage schemes need to be considered for this
part of the basin. Lower Mun water demand seems satisfied; however, dry season availability is lower. Larger volume water availability of this part of the basin can
accommodate increase in water demand, but attention is
required to manage the dry season water requirements.
Figures 7 and 8 show the calculated reliabilities for
irrigation and water supply schemes of the entire basin.
Dry season reliabilities of the irrigation schemes were very
low, except for the upper part of the basin, and in the range

of 20 percent, indicating that irrigation is not feasible in the

dry season. Wet season irrigation schemes were found
reliable, except for a few schemes in the middle part of
the basin. Similar findings are replicated for the water supply schemes. These figures are quantified and presented
in terms of system reliability of irrigation system and water supply system of the basin as given in Table 3. The wet
season reliability of the irrigation system across the basin is
67 percent. That is, only two-thirds of the available irrigation
schemes have full water availability during 80 percent or more
of the cropping period. Similarly, system reliability of water
supply system across the basin was found only to be 38 percent. This is lower than the reliability of irrigation schemes
even when the water supply schemes were given the first
priority in the simulation. This very low reliability of the
water supply system is an interesting result since water
supply demand is very low and was given the first priority
in the simulation. This indicates that the water availabilities in failure months are insufficient to satisfy even the
water supply demands. Detailed data analysis found that
the failure months include few wet season months and all
dry season months. This indicates insignificant dry season
water availability. This finding shows the necessity of providing water needs for domestic, municipal, and industrial
usage from storage facilities or other reliable sources.

Table 2. Water Resources Status in the Mun River Basin

Upper Mun
Summary

Total

Demand (106 m3 /year)

Supply (106 m3 /year)
Shortage (106 m3 /year)
Shortage (%)
Availability (106 m3 /year)
Availability (106 m3 /year/km2 )
Demand (106 m3 /year/km2 )

1,973
1,602
371
19
1,735
0.085
0.088

Wet
Season
1,175
936
239
20
7,860
0.216
0.040

Middle Mun
Dry
Season
798
666
132
17
7,077
0.551
0.059

Lower Mun

Total

Wet
Season

Dry
Season

Total

Wet
Season

1,458
1,021
437
30

854
768
86
10

604
253
351
58

759
678
81
11

408
404
4
1

(1) Data are the average of 33 years (1965 to 1997).

(2) Demand is the sum of irrigation and water supply demand.
(3) Irrigation demand is based on 45 percent irrigation efficiency and 120 percent cropping intensity.

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

Dry
Season
351
274
77
22

33

Application of Mike Basin for Water Management Strategies in a Watershed

Wet season reliability

Dry season reliability

100

Reliability, %

80
60
40
20
0
Ib

Ic

Id

Ie

I5

I7

I12

I13

I15

I18

I19

I21

I24

I27

I30

I31

I33

I34

I36

I39

I41

I42

I44

I45

I47

I49

I52

I53

I55

I58

I59

If

Irrigation schemes
(Notation ex.: 'Ia' has 'I' as irrigation scheme and 'a' as the corresponding node no. as
shown in Figure 5)

Figure 7. Reliabilities of irrigation schemes.

100
Reliability, %

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Ia

80
60
40
20
0
Wa

W3

W5

W7

W12

W15

W18

W19

W21 W24 W27 W30 W31 W36 W39

W41 W42 W44 W49 W52 W53 W55 W58

Wf

Water supply schemes

(Notation ex.: 'Wa' has 'W' as water supply scheme and 'a' as the corresponding
node no. as shown in Fig. 5)

Figure 8 . Reliabilities of water supply schemes.

Table 3. System Reliability of Water Resources
Development Schemes
Demand
Sector

Number of
Schemes

Irrigation

33

Water Supply

24

Period
Wet Season
Dry Season
Yearly

Number of
Reliable
Schemes
22
11
9

System
Reliability
(%)
67
33
38

Table 4 shows the reliable cropping intensity of the

irrigation system of the basin this is the cropping intensity at which the crops will have sufficient water at least
80 percent of the time. The reliable cropping intensity
across the basin was found to be 80 percent in the wet
season and only 12 percent in the dry season. Very low
dry season cropping intensity in the Middle Mun indicates
infeasible dry season cropping in the middle part of the
basin.

One of the major factors in improving water use efficiency is irrigation efficiency. All the findings above are
based on 45 percent irrigation efficiency. The system performance was analyzed by changing the irrigation efficiencies to 35 percent and 55 percent. Figure 9 shows the
effect of different irrigation efficiencies on reliabilities of
the irrigation schemes, and the effect was found to be
insignificant. This is due to the state of the system. It can
be inferred from this result that wet season water availability must be very high in order to accommodate a significant increase in demand, whereas dry season water
Table 4. Reliable Irrigation Cropping Intensities across the Basin
Basin

Reliable Cropping Intensity

Wet Season
Dry Season

Upper Mun
Middle Mun
Lower Mun
Mun Basin

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

82
68
95
80

17
0.05 (infeasible)
12
12

34

M.K. Jha and A. Das Gupta

55% Efficiency

45% Efficiency

35% Efficiency

100
90
80

Reliability, %

70
60
50
40
30

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20
10
0
Ia

Ib

Ic

Id

Ie

I5

I7

I12

I13

I15

I18

I19

I21

I24

I27

I30

I31 I33

I34

I36 I39

I41

I42

I44

I45

I47

I49

I52

I53

I55 I58

I59

If

Irrigation Schemes

Figure 9. Effect of irrigation efficiency on reliabilities of irrigation schemes.

availability is very low and cannot satisfy even a very low

demand.
The above analysis indicates that the tapping of surface water is the first priority then increasing water use
efficiency for such tropical basins with large seasonal climate variations. At the same time, a realization of efficient water use should be developed in the system while
addressing the equitable distribution of water. Moreover,
unreliable availability of water in the streams necessitates
the use of storage schemes to supply water for domestic
and municipal sectors. Possibilities of new storage schemes
should therefore be considered. Another consideration can
be transbasin water diversion: nearby large river can be
diverted, provided that economy and topography allow for
that possibility.
One important aspect to consider is the conjunctive
use of surface water and groundwater resources. Integration of recharge and extraction of groundwater with
surface water storage and utilization in a coordinated manner can substantially increase basin-wide water-use efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of water use.
Appropriate locations can be selected for reservoirs for
the purpose of storage of surface water as well as for the
purpose of induced recharge to the groundwater system,
and consequently groundwater can be tapped downstream
for several purposes. In the Mun Basin, one of the major
reasons for insufficient groundwater exploitation is the
presence of saline water in 40 percent of the area. Removing or treating the salinity of water before the application is not considered feasible; however, there are some
ways to avoid it. Production of salt-tolerant fodder crops
can be promoted in the saline area, or if the salinity is

severe, fish tanks can be recommended. Efforts should be

advanced to eliminate and effectively reduce the causes
of salinity. Inappropriate irrigation is often responsible for
high saline drainage and long-term salt accumulation in
soils. Irrigation planning should therefore take into account
both irrigation purposes and salinity control.
Crop diversification and revision of cropping calendar
can also help to improve the water availability. As in the
case of the Mun Basin, late planting of the wet season
paddy may offer a greater reliability in the wet season.

Conclusion
Basin-scale mathematical models can be used as decision support systems for the assessment of a basins
water resources and establish the basis for planning and
management. This paper describes the application of a
basin-scale simulation model Mike Basin and shows its
usefulness in analyzing the basin performance and thus
establishing the best management approaches for the efficient use and allocation of water resources. The model
was applied in the Mun River Basin of Northeast Thailand. The analysis shows inadequacy of dry season water
availability to satisfy even domestic and municipal uses,
which constitute less than 10 percent of total demand. It
also indicates insignificant dry season irrigation. On the
other hand, the wet season has high water availability. This
imbalance of high water availability in wet season and very
little or no water availability in the dry season limits the
cropping potential of the basin. Based on the findings, some
suggestions are forwarded on the proper management
approach of water resources. Tapping of surface water

IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003

Application of Mike Basin for Water Management Strategies in a Watershed

should be given first priority then increasing water use

efficiency for the Mun river basin. Possibilities of new
storage schemes should be considered (especially in the
Middle part of the basin) to tap the excess wet season
water to increase dry season reliability. Possible transbasin
water diversion schemes should also be considered.

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Acknowledgements
This research was carried out as a partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of master of engineering at Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.
The authors wish to express sincere thanks to Asian Institute of Technology for the support in carrying out this research. The cooperation and assistance of many officials
of the Royal Irrigation Department and the Meteorological Department of Thailand during data collection are gratefully acknowledged.

About the Authors

Manoj Jha is currently a graduate student in the Department of Civil
Engineering at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. He completed
a master degree (M.E.) from the
Asian Institute of Technology,
Pathumthani, Bangkok, Thailand, in
April 2000. He can be contacted at
Iowa State University, 497 Town
Engineering, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. Email:
manoj@iastate.edu.
Dr. Ashim Das Gupta is a Professor in the Water Engineering and
Management Program at the Asian
Institute of Technology in
Pathumthani, Bangkok, Thailand,
since 1976. He is involved in teaching and research in water resources
development and management, in
particular with groundwater resources evaluation, modeling, and
management of groundwater system. Dr. Das Gupta been
associated with several professional associations. He
served on the Board of Directors (1985 to 1991), Vice
President (1992 to 1994), and on the Executive Board (1995
to 2000) of International Water Resources Association
(IWRA). He also was the Secretary of the Asia and Pacific Division of IAHR. Email: adg@ait.ac.th.

35

Discussions open until September 1, 2003.

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IWRA, Water International, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2003