International Commission on C21

Irrigation and Drainage

1st Asian Regional Conference
Seoul, 2001

AN INTEGRATED SIMULATION MODEL FOR WATER

MANAGEMENT IN A SMALL RIVER BASIN:
A Case of Tampo River in West Sumatra, Indonesia

R. Febriamansyah1, H. M. Malano1 and H. N. Turral1

Abstract

This study has tried to develop an integrated simulation model for water management in a
small river basin by marrying physical and socio-institutional elements in a situation of very
limited hydrological data availability. This simulation model is a combination of simple
hydrological modelling, irrigation water requirement model, and water balance model along
the river. Those three physical quantitative models are constructed based on the socio-
institutional assessment of water users.

The Tampo river basin with an area of 71.5 km2 in West Sumatra, Indonesia has been chosen
as the study site, and was selected because of findings from previous studies in the area. This
paper summarises this study and demonstrates the application of the simulation model to
summarize the relative impacts of several possible alternative solution of water allocation in
this case site.

Introduction

Competition in water use is often a common (real) problem in water resource management. It
becomes a more severe problem when an outside intervention that has improved the physical
facilities of one irrigation system has also influenced the traditional water allocation pattern
between irrigation systems. This case commonly occurs in hilly areas where the river basin is
an open catchment. Improvements of irrigation facilities in the upper system will not only
increase withdrawals of water from the main river but may also divert outflow to another
catchment area.

The Tampo river basin in West Sumatra, Indonesia is one such example (Zein et al., 1986 and
Ambler, 1989). Specifically, the problem of water distribution in this small river basin
becomes worse during the low flow period. From June to August in the dry season, the
average rainfall is lower than the average evaporation. The average flow of 250 l/s at the

1
The authors are with International Technologies Centre (IDTC), Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia.
upper catchment will not be sufficient for more than 1000 ha paddy fields, and is quite
variable. The Coefficient of Variation (CV) of monthly rainfall is relatively high, 0.42 to 0.76
in the rainy season and 0.51 to 1.04 in the dry season.

In order to solve the problem of water management in this river basin, a local university
research institution (PSI-Unand) facilitated the establishment of a coordination forum among
irrigation systems in 1991 (Tim Peneliti Unand, 1991). This forum is supposed to allocate a
place for all irrigators (through their leaders) to discuss the existing problems of water
allocation. However, after more than five years, this forum still could not work effectively due
to a number of constraints.

Since hydrological information is not adequate, and socio-institutional aspects are not also
appropriately considered, this study intends to produce a simple simulation model as “a
decision support tool” that will be able to help all the involved parties to get the best
alternative of water management.

Overview of the Case Site

This study is centered in a sub-catchment area of Tampo river basin, which is located in
Kecamatan (sub-district of) Lintau Buo in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia (See Fig. 1.).
This sub-district has nine nagari1; Batu Bulat, Balai Tangah, Tanjung Bonai, Tapi Selo, and
Lubuk Jantan in the upper portion, and; Buo, Pangian, Tigo Jangko and Taluak in the lower
reaches. However, by considering its hydrological boundary, this river basin mainly covers
the west site of the sub-district, which covers only six nagari in the upper part.

* Mt.Sago +2000m

Legend:

River

Nagari boundary

Tampo River basin boundary

Buo climatic station (+368m)

Fig. 1 Tampo River Basin in the Sub-district of Lintau Buo, West Sumatra, Indonesia

1
Nagari is a traditional village and later an administration unit below sub-district level.

2
Tampo river basin is a sub-sub-basin of a large river basin of Batang Kuantan. The catchment
of this basin is only around 824 ha of forest. As water from this river is also used to irrigate
paddy fields in another sub-basin (Mangus-Sinamar: 18.5 km2), the total area observed in this
study is about 71.5 km2. Along the river, there are 59 headworks for small-scale irrigation that
water about 1,437 ha paddy field. Based on findings of the previous studies, and also the
preliminary assessment of this study, this paddy field area is divided into three regions. The
upstream region (584 ha.) is considered as the wettest region because most of irrigators get
enough water to cultivate rice continuously all year-round. The midstream region (573 ha.)
gets a medium amount of the available water. While the downstream region (280 ha.) is
considered as the dry region, as they get only the residual water from upstream.

Buo climatic station (at 00 27’ 40”S, 100 45’ 00” E) is the only available station within the
river basin, and has been operated since 1982. Although the daily rainfall data have been
collected since 1982, the complete daily climatic data have only been recorded since 1992.
Apart from that, there are three rainfall stations around the river basin; Koto Tinggi (North-
west), Situjuh (North) and Kumanis (South). The rainfall record at these three stations is used
to test and adjust the reliability of rainfall record at Buo.

There is streamflow data at two points along the river (at the upper and middle part). But, the
records were found to be very unreliable because they are short and discontinuous, and the
coefficient of determination (R2) between the records is low, below 0.4.

Methodology

The Framework for the Integrated Simulation Model is as follow:

Socio-institutional Physical / Technical

Approach Approach

• Identify the role of local institutions • Hydrological analysis of water

in water management resources in the river basin
• Interview and observe the current • Construction of a simplified
pattern of water use and describe the river network
allocation system • Estimation of Irrigation Water
• Identify factors affecting conflict over Requirement (IWR Model)
water use and allocation • Construction of a system
• Identify alternatives for water simulation model using Water
allocation balance analysis.

Fig. 2 The analytical framework

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1. A Socio-Institutional approach

The existing water management system is analyzed by investigation of the local institutional
aspects of water use and allocation. All findings on this approach are then synthesized and
applied to construct an appropriate physical/technical method of water resource analysis as
described below. To collect all information needed, this study has combined a questionnaire
survey, a semi-structured interviews with several key informants, and a participatory field
observation.

2. The Physical/technical approach

2.1.The hydrology simulation model

In the absence of good hydrological data, this study uses rainfall-runoff (RF-RO) parameters
derived from similar catchment with Tampo. A suitable catchment is identified using a
regionalisation technique, presented by Nathan and McMahon (1991). This technique uses
Andrew’s curves, which can be expressed as:
x
f (t ) = 1 + x 2 sin(t ) + x3 cos(t ) + x 4 sin( 2t ) + x 5 cos(2t ) + x 6 sin(3t ) + ... … (1)
2
The variables x1, x2, … represent each of the factors used to characterize the catchment, and
the function is plotted over the range –π to +π.

The Simple Bucket Model2 was applied to an identified similar catchment to determine its
optimized RF-RO parameters (See Fig. 3.). The optimized parameters from this similar
catchment are then used to generate the time series of streamflow data at the upper part of
Tampo River by using the daily rainfall and evapotranspiration data at Buo.

P ET P = Precipitation
ET = Evapotranspiration
SRO SRO = Surface Runoff
BF = Baseflow
k = baseflow factor
S cap S cap = Storage capacity
k BF
Fig. 3 A simple bucket model

3. The Water Balance analysis

The stream and channel network in the Tampo River is very complicated. However, based on
the socio-institutional assessment and review of previous studies, the river network was
simplified as seen on Fig. 4. The 59 irrigation systems along the river have been combined

2
Dr. Francis Chiew at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Melbourne, Australia
has suggested to use this model for small and ungauged catchment area.

4
into 9 offtakes. Each offtake represents several irrigation systems managed by a nagari. In the
upstream region, conflict over water use is between N. Batu Bulat (offtake 001 and 004) and
N. Tanjung Bonai (offtake 002 and 003). While, in midstream region, conflict of water is
between N. Balai Tangah (offtake 005) and N. Tapi Selo/Lubuk Jantan (offtake 006 and 007).
Farmers and Nagari leaders in offtake 008 and 009 (in N. Buo) usually contest their share of
water with farmers or nagari leaders in offtake 005 in the midstream area.

Inflow from other rivers, return-flow or outflow from each offtake, and drainage canals are
then identified to complete this river network. In order to establish a water balance for the
basin, streamflow was recorded at 13 points within the river basin between Nov-1998 and
Oct-1999. These data are used to estimate inflow and outflow at each section (See Fig. 4.)

Q in, Upper Tampo

Upstream section Sinamar R.

Off-001 Q in r
Off-002
Sibawak R.
Off-003

Kawai R.
Off-004

Midstream section
Qout1
Off-005

Off-006
Lindan R.
Off-007 Legend:
Down-stream section
Qout2 Measuring Points
Offtake Withdrawal

Off-008 Returnflow/ outflow

Spring

Off-009
Drainage canal
Qout3

Fig. 4 The simplified river network

3.1. The Irrigation Water Requirement model (IWR)

The estimation of water requirement at each offtake is made using the IMSOP software3. This
program was chosen due to its capability to estimate the IWR for multiple offtakes, multi set
of time planting and multi crops in one simulation step. Input data used in this program was
collected from field observation, interviews and other source books related to the crop
characteristics.

3.2. The Water Balance model in the river

3
IMSOP is an Irrigation Management and System Operation Model. This is a computer program that was
developed by International Technology Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia.

5
Those nine offtakes in Fig. 4 represent several irrigation systems managed by the six nagari.
The water balance model is then used to estimate four important parameters: irrigation
efficiency (IE), withdrawal rate (WR), return-flows (RF) and outflows (OF) from each offtake
to another catchment4. The optimization of those four parameters is done by minimizing the
sum-square error between measured and calculated flow at each outlet of each section.

The calculation of water flow at each outlet is done by applying the principle of water balance
from one point to another. Equation (2) presents the calculation method to estimate the flow at
(Q out 2) in the midstream section:

Q out 2 = Q in – Q withdraw … (2)

Q in = Q out 1 + Q in Kawai + RF offtake 005 + RF offtake 006 + RF offtake 007

Q withdraw = Total Withdraw at (offtake 005 + offtake 006 + offtake 007)

4. Method to determine Impact Analysis

The impact of water allocation pattern is examined from an economic and water-resource
perspective. Both are analyzed in terms of their real value and equity value. The equity value
of average income and average water condition at all offtakes is calculated by using Gini
coefficient as described by Feinerman (1988).

The condition of water availability at each offtake is identified by a K factor5. If a value of K

factor of an offtake is less than 50%, its paddy fields will be in a stressed condition. The
number of periods for this condition is then converted into a ratio of water supply every
season.

Income at each offtake is calculated according to this supply ratio. The maximum and
minimum bounds of rice productivity in each subregion of the catchment were determined
from the formal questionnaire survey. The minimum level of rice production is assumed to
occur mainly when the available water is less than 50% of requirement. While, the maximum
level of production is assumed to occur at 100% of required supply.

Application and results

1. Andrews Test for similar catchment

4
IE is a percentage of irrigation capability to deliver water to its command area. The WR is a percentage of
water that will be withdrawn by farmers from the available water in the river. The RF is a percentage of water
that flows back to the river, and the OF is a percentage of water that flow out to another catchment.
5
Pasandaran et al. (1989) defined the ratio between available flow and irrigation demand in terms of the K factor
of the Pasten Distribution Method. The water resource is still adequate if the K factor is over 75%, and it is a
problem if K is less than 50%.

6
There are not many upper catchment areas close to Tampo that have a good streamflow
record. Only three upper river catchments have similar characteristics to the Tampo Basin,
Sungai Talang to the west of Batang Tampo, Batang Sabu, and Batang Sianok.

Fig. 5. shows the Andrew’s curves of all four catchments, and the two objective goodness-of-
fit measures of SS and CS (as described in Nathan and Mc.Mahon, 1990)6. The upper Sabu is
the most similar catchment to Tampo, having the lowest of SS and the closest value of CS to
+1.

5
4
Criter Tampo- Tampo- Tampo-
3 ion Talang Sianok Sabu
2
1 SS 438.8 1506 192.4
0
-1
CS -0.52 -0.89 0.353
-2
-3
-4
Tampo Talang
Sianok Sabu

Fig. 5 The Andrew’s Curve of four catchments

2. The Rainfall-Runoff parameter and the flow simulation of Tampo River basin

By applying a Simple Bucket Model, the available streamflow record at upper Sabu from
1987 to 1990 is then used to estimate the optimised RF-RO parameters. By minimizing the
sum-square of error between the calculated and the measured flow, the optimized value of
storage capacity, Scap =121.4 mm and the baseflow factor, k=0.04. The regression analysis of
the measured and simulated flow yielded a Coefficient of Determination, R2=0.65, with the
Coefficient of correlation, r =0.80, and the Coefficient of Efficiency, E=0.60.

These optimized parameters are then calibrated with the observed values for six months’ of
observed data at the upper Tampo. This yielded the value of r = 0.77, E = 0.5, and R2 = 0.6.
Therefore, it was felt that it is reasonable to use those parameters to estimate flows in the
Upper Tampo.

Using the daily rainfall record at Buo (16 years record, 1983-1998), the two RF-RO
parameters at upper Sabu were used to generate monthly streamflow at Upper Tampo for 16
years. Then, for the purpose of water management, a simple method of probability
distribution was applied to estimate the respective monthly low flow (80% probability) of
rainfall and streamflow as seen in Table 1.

6
Six of seven catchment characteristics defined by Nathan and Mc.Mahon (1991) are used to identify the most
similar catchment of Tampo basin; x1 = mean annual rainfall (mm), x2 = elevation of catchment centroid (m), x3
= catchment shape, x4 = slope of central 75% of the mainstream length (m/km), x5 = stream frequency (km-2),
and x6 = fraction of catchment covered by medium/dense forest.

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Table 1. The monthly low flow (80% prob.) of rainfall (mm) at Buo and Streamflow (mm) at upper Tampo.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
Runoff 109 84 101 97 75 45 34 32 46 46 67 101 836
Rainfall 105 52 68 92 126 54 29 137 49 286 114 166 1276

3. The Water Balance model

A one-year observation period of the cropping pattern within the river basin was used to
estimate the irrigation water requirement at each offtake. Input data such as types of crop and
their characteristics, area, the cropping calendar, etc, are input into the IMSOP program in
order to obtain the crop water requirement at each offtake.

The optimization process is done by minimizing sum square error between calculated and
measured flow at the outlet of each section. In this regard, the four parameters (IE, WR, RF
and OF) are first set in the water balance model (See Table 2, 1st trial). Certain conditions and
constraints are imposed to optimize three of the four parameters (IE, RF and OF) used in
water balance, while the WR for each offtake is assumed as a fixed parameter. The IE for
each offtake is set from 40% to 80%, and the OF rate is set at different level depending on its
topographical condition. The OF from Offtake 001 that practically will return the whole
drainage water back to the river or to downstream users is set at 0, while the OF from offtake
002 that topographically will discharge some of its drainage water to another catchment is set
equal or higher than 30%. These conditions are also applied to the midstream section where
the OF from Offtake 005 is set equal or higher than 20%.

As a result, Table 2 shows that the average IE at the upper section is lower than the
downstream section. The OF from offtake 002 and 005 is relatively high (>30%).

Table 2. The result of parameter optimisation

Parameters (%) Up-stream Mid-stream Down-stream

001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009
1st trial Irr efficiency (IE) 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60
Outflow (OF) 0 40 20 20 40 20 20 20 30
Return flow (RF) 40 0 20 20 0 20 20 20 10
Withdrawal rate (WR) 40 50 60 75 80 80 80 80 80
Con- Min irr.eff. 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
straints Max irr.eff 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80
Outflow rate =0 >=30 >=10 >=10 >=20 >=10 >=10 >=10 >=15
Return flow >=0 >=0 >=0 >=0 >=0 >=0 >=0 >=0 >=0
Optimiz Irr efficiency 40 56 40 40 63.5 62.3 59.1 62.3 59.8
-ed Outflow 0 30 10 10 36 10 13 10 15
Return flow 60 14 50 50 0 28 31 28 25

Table 3 shows the results of statistical tests to examine the difference between calculated and
measured flow at each Q outlet. This table shows that it is reasonable to accept all parameters
in the water balance model to be used on the simulation of water management alternatives in

8
the case site. Although there is a high error nearly 30% at Q out 3 (rainy season, Sep-Feb) and
Qout1 (dry season, Mar-Aug) the coefficient of correlation and the coefficient of
determination is relatively high (> 0.6).
Table 3. Statistical analysis to the output simulation of the water balance model.

Measured Rainy season Dry season Annual

Points % error r R2 % error r R2 % error r R2
Q out 1 21.2 0.81 0.65 -21.1 0.82 0.67 0.5 0.83 0.69
Q out 2 -8.7 0.88 0.78 0.3 0.72 0.52 -3.9 0.80 0.64
Q out 3 -27.1 0.92 0.85 3.2 0.86 0.74 -13.8 0.78 0.61

4. The Impact of current practices and alternatives

The application of the optimized parameters in the water balance model has enabled the
determination of water distribution at each region and offtake. As seen in Table 4, the current
practice of water use and allocation produces a high inequality of water condition and income
among offtakes. The tail offtakes at each zone get much lesser water than the head offtakes,
so they get relatively lower income.

Table 4. The impact of current water management (from Sep’98 to Aug’99)

Condition Upper section Middle section Down section

Of-1 Of-2 Of-3 Of-4 Of-5 Of-6 Of-7 Of-8 Of-9
%Water in rainy season 94 72 67 61 94 61 67 78 72
% Water in dry season 100 61 56 67 100 65 71 89 65
Income/ha (Rp000) 4225 2152 1808 1552 4495 1693 2150 3562 2230
Equity in water 0.095
Equity in income 0.21373

During the fieldwork in October 1998, there was inadequate water in the river. Farmers in
offtakes 006 and 007 complained of unfair abstraction at offtake 005, and tried to force them
to reduce their withdrawals by sending a letter to the Local Irrigation Agency. However, the
local officers could not do anything to overcome the problem because they do not have
guidelines as to how to arrange the distribution of the available water among those offtakes.
Farmers in offtake 005 have also claimed that their paddy fields are also lack of water.

Local farmers and other members of the community suggested other alternatives. In general,
almost all of them understand this situation, and mentioned three other alternatives; practicing
a water sharing system, increasing the stagger time and practicing the rotation of supply to
upland crops.

5. Impact Analysis of each alternatives

Six alternative water management initiatives were investigated as seen in Table 5. For the
purpose of impact analysis, those alternatives are specified in quantitative terms as inputs for

9
simulation. It is then simulated using the proposed water balance model in order to obtain the
impacts from each alternative, using the water availability in the low flow period (80%
probability).
Table 5 A list of alternative solution

Alt No. Explanation

1 Continuing the current pattern of water use and allocation
2 Changing with the new water allocation rule by practicing water-sharing system based on the area.
3 Changing the planting schedule by increasing the staggered time between block/offtakes, but still
practicing the old water allocation rule
4 Changing the planting schedule and practicing new water allocation rule
5 Crop diversification and rotation with the same time schedule and no change in water allocation rule
6 Crop diversification and rotation and practicing new water allocation rule.

Table 6 presents the impact of these alternatives from users point of view. We could see that
practicing a water-sharing allocation system would create higher benefits and more equality.
This practice will be much better if it is combined with changing the planting schedule as
well. Practicing alternative 6 will produce higher income and water condition, but not
necessarily improve the equality of distribution.

This impact analysis is however only a quantitative result of a simulation process. There is a
need for further investigation by giving a chance to the local farmers and other related water
users to assess and give their own perception to these results. In this regard, this study will
continue the analysis on the social acceptance of water users to assess the alternatives. An
AHP (the Analytic Hierarchical Process) method is seemed quite appropriate to be applied for
this purpose.

Table 6. The impact of each alternative

Alt. Equity in (Gini coef.) Average in

Water condition Average income/ha Water condition (%) Income
1 0.1742 0.4759 65 1899
2 0.252 0.2741 76 2762
3 0.1707 0.4593 66 1952
4 0.0821 0.1736 78 2930
5 0.1684 0.3008 70 2529
6 0.1214 0.2009 82 3364
Note: Average income in thousand rupiah/ha/year (1998 price index).

Conclusion

The absence of a detailed hydrology database is a common problem in many water resource
studies. There are however useful results that can be obtained by using simulation-modeling
techniques. In this study itself, a combination of simple models has provided an effective tool
for the assessment of a complex system of an ungauged river basin. The physical/technical
framework that was developed on the basis of socio-institutional analysis has been effectively

10
applied for a small basin with high complexity. As this integrated simulation framework was
developed using an adaptive approach that allows for users perspective to be considered, there
is still opportunity to continue the analysis on the social acceptance of water users to assess
the proposed management alternatives.

Acknowledgments.

The author would like to thank the AusAID for providing financial support for this study and the people of
Lintau Buo for providing information and assistance during the data collection.

References
Ambler, J.S., 1989. Adat and Aid: Management of Small-scale Irrigation in West Sumatera, Indonesia. A PhD
Dissertation, Cornell University.
Feinerman, E., 1988. Groundwater Management: Efficiency and Equity Considerations, Agricultural Economics,
2:1-18
Nathan, R.J. and McMahon, T.A., 1990. Identification of Homogeneous Regions for the Purposes of
Regionalisation. Jurnal of Hydrology 121:217-238.
Nathan, R.J. and McMahon, T.A., 1991. Estimating low flow characteristics in ungauged catchments: a
practical guide. Dept. of Civil and Agric. Engineering, University of Melbourne.
Pasandaran, E. Hutabarat, B. and Djunaedi, S., 1989. Irrigation Management to support Crop Diversification in
Indonesia. Research Network on Irrig. management for Diversified Cropping in Rice-Based Systems:
Proceeding of the organizational and planning workshop. IIMI.
Tim Peneliti Unand, 1991. Pilot Proyek Koordinasi Pengelolaa Air Antar Daerah Irigasi di wilayah PUP
Batusangkar, Sum-Bar. Kerjasama Dirjen Pengairan DPU dengan Univ. Andalas, Padang.
Zein, D., Madjan, E., Jusuf, Chatib, C., Agus,, R., Helmi, Martius, E. and Ekaputra, E., 1986. Pengelolaan
Irigasi kecil di Sumatra Barat: Perbandingan Daerah Basah, Sedang dan Kering di DAS Batang Tampo/Selo,
Kab. Tanah Datar. Kerjasama DPUP dan Univ. Andalas, Padang.

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