Okanagan Basin Water Board Focuses on Sustainability of Water Use and Management

The Province of British Colombia has been experiencing growing concerns for the sustainability of water use and management in the Okanagan Basin. As a response, the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) and the BC Ministry of Environment initiated a project to provide an estimate of present and future water demand and availability, taking into account factors such as population growth, climate change, and preservation of land. For the project OBWB needed to build a customized Water Accounting Model. DHI’s MIKE SHE software was selected for the project due to the flexibility and scalability which makes it possible to start with simplified processes and gradually implement more detailed and complex processes. DHI was also subcontracted to prepare the integrated watershed model that will be used to predict the individual and combined impacts on the basin. The results of the future modeling scenarios will help shape water resources management policies for the Okanagan Basin.