RIBASIM – River Basin Planning and Management
Decision makers need to balance the supply and demand of water in complex situations at the river basin scale and under increasing pressure from climate change. RIBASIM provides a free software tool to visualize, evaluate and prioritize water allocation strategies based on their impact. This provides insights to decision makers, enabling them to build consensus amongst water users and make smart decisions about how to manage water resources optimally considering uncertainties now and in the future.
RIBASIM was developed to support basin stakeholders in planning and discussing alternative water allocation strategies. As a result, its user interface features case management tools for easy exploration and visualization of future scenarios and alternative strategies. RIBASIM has been used over the past decades to provide insight into transboundary water allocations and rights negotiations in many countries. It can be deployed as a standalone tool, or it can be set up to inter-operate with Deltares’ hydrological and hydrogeological software for more detailed analysis of surface and groundwater resources.
In 2023 we started renewal of the Ribasim computational core. We expect to finish the renewal in 2024.
Features of RIBASIM
The RIBASIM (RIver BAsin SIMulation) software provides an effective tool to support the process of planning and resource analysis.
- RIBASIM is a free and open-source river basin planning software.
- It is a mass balance model to calculate the storage, distribution and return flows of water through a river system, with several hydrologic routing methods for simulating channel flows.
- With tools to calculate water demand and use by (irrigated) agriculture, power generation, urban centres and industry.
- Whilst also accounting for ecological water users, environmental impacts, water quality and sedimentation, in addition to using economic and equity indicators to evaluate alternative strategies.
- It features a graphical user interface for network editing, visualization, and case management of scenarios.
- It has been used by stakeholders as a collaborative tool in workshops to evaluate alternative long-term strategies for allocating water.
- As well as determine the best filling strategy for new reservoirs or the optimal operation strategy for existing reservoirs.
- It can also be used to assess hydropower potential and estimate reservoir sedimentation.
How to obtain RIBASIM
RIBASIM is free to use. The latest fully validated release can be downloaded via our Download Portal. You can order a Service package via our Sales Service team (software@deltares.nl).
If RIBASIM is free, why should I get a service package? For users where RIBASIM is part of a critical workflow we recommend a service package where users receive support from Deltares during Netherlands office hours. If you already have an older RIBASIM model and want it updated to the latest version then get in touch with us.
