The relatively high capital costs and environmental impacts of reservoirs requires water service providers to maximise the economic, social and environmental benefits of existing and proposed reservoirs. This may be achieved by modifying operations, reviewing risk management or constructing new engineering works.

The key service provided by SMEC is the simulation of complex systems of multi-purpose reservoirs. Packages applied include WATHNET (a general-purpose network linear programming model being jointly developed by SMEC and the University of Newcastle) and the well-known HEC-5 package. Packages are also developed in-house to address specific client needs. In conjunction with reservoir simulation studies, SMEC is often requested to: 

• review hydrology & historical reservoir operating data 
• review urban, industrial, hydropower and irrigation demands 
• work with clients to better define risk management strategies 
• participate in the development of environmental flows strategies.

Typical recent projects include: 

• simulation of augmentation options for urban water supply to Darwin, a city of 100,000 in the tropical north of Australia 
• development of the WATHNET package and optimisation of the operation of the nine storages comprising the Sydney water supply headworks, Australia 
• investigation of the impact of environmental flow releases from cooling water storages on the security of operation of the 2320MW thermal power stations in south-east Australia 
• development of a plan of operation for the 5-reservoir headworks system supplying 600 km of main irrigation canals in Maharashtra State, India