[0001] The present invention relates generally to environment protection and conservation. More particularly, to a system and method for determining an environmental flow.

BACKGROUND
[0002] Environmental flow is a phenomenon that has been suggested as a mitigation measure for an impact that occurs due to construction and operation of a hydropower project. Definition of the environmental flow is of various folds, and in terms of hydropower projects it is defined as a minimal water release in a downstream side of a river for sustainability of the ecosystem. Assessment of the environmental flow requirements can be done by means of various methodologies each having its own advantages and disadvantages.
[0003] Hydrological method which utilizes flow data of water to assess the environmental flow requirements has many advantages but it suffers from issues of data deficiency and data authenticity. Use of a Flow Duration Curve (FDC) methodology requires determining a plot between a percentage of excedance and a discharge is jotted down and 95% of the discharge is taken as a required environmental flow. Also, data from a long time period may be needed for estimation of the parameters. Further, Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) enables estimation of a beginning and an end of a drought as well as its intensity.
[0004] There is therefore a need to provide a mechanism for using a FDC and a SPI for a specific time scale at a location.

OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE
[0005] Some of the objects of the present disclosure aimed to ameliorate one or more problems of the prior art or to at least provide a useful alternative are listed herein below.
[0006] An object of the present disclosure is to provide a Flow Duration Curve (FDC) that provides fundamental pieces of information that is fed into a design of a hydropower project.
[0007] Another object of the present disclosure is to provide FDC that supplies data about flow characteristics of a river for a selected region subjected to all recorded flows in the river.
[0008] Another object of the present disclosure is to provide FDC where daily, weekly, or monthly flow values are used.
[0009] Another object of the present disclosure is to provide FDC analysis where different flow rates are suggested for different ecological processes.
[00010] Another object of the present disclosure is to provide Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) for facilitating standardization, which ensures that frequency of extreme events at any location and on any time scale is consistent.
[00011] Another object of the present disclosure is to provide SPI with a variable time scale that facilitates to provide analysis of drought dynamics, especially for determination of onset and cessation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[00012] The present invention relates generally to environment protection and conservation. More particularly, to a system and method for determining an environmental flow.
[00013] According to an aspect of the present disclosure is provided, a method for managing an environmental flow requirement for a predefined physical area, said method comprising: receiving, at a processor of a remote computing device, a first set of data packets indicative of rainfall gauge data and a second set of data packets indicative of a rainfall data associated with the predefined physical area; determining, at the processor, a Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on the received first set of data packets and the second set of data packets; receiving, at the processor, a third set of data packets indicative of a flow meter, a fourth set of data packets indicative of a flow data associated with the predefined physical area; determining, at the processor, a Flow duration curve (FDC) based on the received third set of data packets and the fourth set of data packets; and determining, at the processor, a correlation between the determined SPI and the FDC to determine and manage the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
[00014] According to an embodiment, the predefined physical area is a river basin.
[00015] According to an embodiment, the environmental flow is indicative of an amount of water available within a water body to maintain ecosystem.
[00016] According to an embodiment, the water body is any of a river, a wetland or a coastal zone.
[00017] According to an embodiment, the FDC depends on the flow data and assess the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
[00018] According to an embodiment, the FDC further comprises determination of a probability of a particular discharge that occurs in the predefined physical area.
[00019] According to an embodiment, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is determined using an absolute fit of a gamma frequency distribution as a probability function to first, second, third and fourth set of data packets determined within the predefined physical area.
[00020] Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like features.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
[00021] In the figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label with a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.
[00022] FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary functional components of an environmental flow system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00023] FIG. 2 illustrates a mechanism for determining an environmental flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00024] FIG. 3 is a high-level flow diagram illustrating working of the system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00025] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computer system to implement the proposed system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[00026] In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.
[00027] While embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be clear that the invention is not limited to these embodiments only. Numerous modifications, changes, variations, substitutions, and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as described in the claim.
[00028] The present invention relates generally to environment protection and conservation. More particularly, to a system and method for determining an environmental flow.
[00029] According to an aspect of the present disclosure is provided, a method for managing an environmental flow requirement for a predefined physical area, said method comprising: receiving, at a processor of a remote computing device, a first set of data packets indicative of rainfall gauge data and a second set of data packets indicative of a rainfall data associated with the predefined physical area; determining, at the processor, a Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on the received first set of data packets and the second set of data packets; receiving, at the processor, a third set of data packets indicative of a flow meter, a fourth set of data packets indicative of a flow data associated with the predefined physical area; determining, at the processor, a Flow duration curve (FDC) based on the received third set of data packets and the fourth set of data packets; and determining, at the processor, a correlation between the determined SPI and the FDC to determine and manage the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
[00030] According to an embodiment, the predefined physical area is a river basin.
[00031] According to an embodiment, the environmental flow is indicative of an amount of water available within a water body to maintain ecosystem.
[00032] According to an embodiment, the water body is any of a river, a wetland or a coastal zone.
[00033] According to an embodiment, the FDC depends on the flow data and assess the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
[00034] According to an embodiment, the FDC further comprises determination of a probability of a particular discharge that occurs in the predefined physical area.
[00035] According to an embodiment, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is determined using an absolute fit of a gamma frequency distribution as a probability function to first, second, third and fourth set of data packets determined within the predefined physical area.
[00036] In order to overcome data deficiency in evaluating the environmental flow requirements, a correlation between the Flow Duration Curve (FDC) values and Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) is determined to evaluate the environmental flow requirements for a study area such as but not limited to a riverbed or a basin area.
[00037] A flow duration curve is a cumulative curve that shows a percent of time specified discharges are equaled or exceeded during a given period. It combines in one curve flow characteristics of a stream throughout a range of discharge, without regard to the sequence of occurrence. If the period upon which the curve is based represents the long-term flow of a stream, the curve may be used to predict the distribution of future flows for waterpower, water-supply, and pollution studies. Further, duration curves are useful in appraising geologic characteristics of drainage basins.
[00038] In addition, the FDC supplies data about the flow characteristics of a river for a selected region subjected to all recorded flows in the river. In addition, with help of the FDC, time availability percentage of any flow rate can easily be obtained. As can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the FDCs formed by using long-term flow data are more reliable and convenient with regard to their use. The most important advantage of FDC analysis is that it has a wide area of application. In addition, different flow rates are suggested for different ecological processes.
[00039] The Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) is a latest drought index based only on precipitation. It is an index that is based on probability of precipitation for a determined time scale. Some processes are rapidly affected by atmospheric behavior, such as dry land agriculture, and the relevant time scale is a month or two. Other processes have longer time scales, typically several months, such as the rate at which shallow wells, small ponds, and smaller rivers become drier or wetter. Some processes have much longer time scales, such as the rate at which major reservoirs, or aquifers, or large natural bodies of water rise and fall, and the time scale of these variations is on order of several years.
[00040] Referring to the drawings, the invention will now be described in more detail.
[00041] FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary functional components 100 of an environmental flow system 102 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00042] In an aspect, the system 102 may comprise one or more processor(s) 104. The one or more processor(s) 104 may be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate data based on operational instructions. Among other capabilities, the one or more processor(s) 104 are configured to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory 106 of the system 102. The memory 106 may store one or more computer-readable instructions or routines, which may be fetched and executed to create or share the data units over a network service. The memory 106 may comprise any non-transitory storage device including, for example, volatile memory such as RAM, or non-volatile memory such as EPROM, flash memory, and the like.
[00043] The system 102 may also comprise an interface(s) 108. The interface(s) 108 may comprise a variety of interfaces, for example, interfaces for data input and output devices, referred to as I/O devices, storage devices, and the like. The interface(s) 108 may facilitate communication of system 102. The interface(s) 108 may also provide a communication pathway for one or more components of the processing engine 110. Examples of such components include, but are not limited to, processing engine(s) 110 and database 124.
[00044] The processing engine(s) 110 may be implemented as a combination of hardware and programming (for example, programmable instructions) to implement one or more functionalities of the processing engine(s) 110. The processing engine(s) 110 is stored on the memory 106 and runs on the processor(s) 104. In examples described herein, such combinations of hardware and programming may be implemented in several different ways. For example, the programming for the processing engine(s) 110 may be processor executable instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and the hardware for the processing engine(s) 110 may comprise a processing resource (for example, one or more processors), to execute such instructions. In the present examples, the machine-readable storage medium may store instructions that, when executed by the processing resource, implement the processing engine(s) 110. In such examples, the system 102 may comprise the machine-readable storage medium storing the instructions and the processing resource to execute the instructions, or the machine-readable storage medium may be separate but accessible to system 102 and the processing resource. In other examples, the processing engine(s) 110 may be implemented by electronic circuitry.
[00045] The database 124 may comprise data that is either stored or generated as a result of functionalities implemented by any of the components of the processing engine(s) 110 or the system 102. In an embodiment, the processing engine(s) 110 may include data packets receiving engine 112, a SPI determination engine 114, a FDC determination engine 116, an environmental flow determination engine 118, and other engine (s) 120. Other engine(s) 122 can supplement the functionalities of the processing engine 110 or the system 102.
[00046] According to an embodiment, the data packets receiving engine 112 receive a first set of data packets that are indicative of rainfall gauge data and a second set of data packets indicative of a rainfall data associated with the predefined physical area. Further, is received a third set of data packets indicative of a flow meter, and a fourth set of data packets indicative of a flow data associated with the predefined physical area. The predefined physical area is a river basin.
[00047] According to an embodiment, the SPI determination engine 114, determines SPI based on the received first set of data packets and the second set of data packets.
[00048] According to an embodiment, the FDC determination engine 116, determines a Flow duration curve (FDC) based on the received third set of data packets and the fourth set of data packets.
[00049] According to an embodiment, the environmental flow determination engine 118 determines a correlation between the determined SPI and the FDC to determine and manage the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area. The environmental flow is indicative of an amount of water available within a water body to maintain ecosystem. The water body is any of a river, a wetland or a coastal zone. The FDC depends on the flow data and assess the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area. The FDC further includes determining a probability of a particular discharge that occurs in the predefined physical area. The SPI is determined using an absolute fit of a gamma frequency distribution as a probability function to first, second, third and fourth set of data packets determined within the predefined physical area.
[00050] FIG. 2 illustrates a mechanism for determining an environmental flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00051] In an embodiment, at 202 data from one or more rain gauges (e.g., a device for collecting and measuring the amount of rain which falls in an area) is collected and quantity of the rain water is determined at rainfall data block at 204. Using the rainfall data at block 204, SPI is calculated at block 206. Further, at block 208, a flow meter is provided that is used to determine a count of the amount of rainfall received. At block 210, a flow data is determined using the readings of the flow meter at block 208. Flow data measured by the digital flow meter is sent and fed into a remote processing system. The remote processing system may be a remote physical server or a cloud server or a computing device.
[00052] Thereafter a FDC calculation is done at block 212. In an embodiment, the determinations as from block 206 and 210 are then used to calculate a correlation between the calculated SPI at block 206 and the calculated FDC at block 212. Further, environmental flow requirement is determined at block 216 using the determined correlated SPI and FDC. The system may be programmed to evaluate the SPI and the FDC and correlate values between them. This mechanism may provide a standard environmental flow value to be maintained during a lean period based on amount of rainfall received in a specified region.
[00053] The determination of the environmental flow shall help fulfill requirements of an ecosystem, and therefore, plays a crucial role in planning and management of water resources.
[00054] As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, hydrological information such as flow data may be frequently used in a tennant method to derive the environmental flow condition. This flow data is very sparse or usually not available, especially in ungauged catchments. Therefore, concepts of both FDC mechanism and SPI mechanism may be coupled to describe the environmental flow condition of the catchment directly from rainfall, for runoff is a function of the rainfall. The correlation between the SPI and the FDC may prove that rainfall data may be used to determine environmental flow requirements.
[00055] FIG. 3 is a high-level flow diagram illustrating working of the system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00056] In an embodiment is provided a method for managing an environmental flow requirement for a predefined physical area. At block 302, a processor of a remote computing device receives a first set of data packets indicative of rainfall gauge data and a second set of data packets indicative of a rainfall data associated with the predefined physical area. At block 304, a Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on the received first set of data packets and the second set of data packets are determined. At block 306, a third set of data packets indicative of a flow meter, a fourth set of data packets indicative of a flow data associated with the predefined physical area is received at the processor. Further, at block 308, is determined a Flow duration curve (FDC) based on the received third set of data packets and the fourth set of data packets. Furthermore, at block 310, is determined a correlation between the determined SPI and the FDC to determine and manage the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
[00057] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computer system to implement the proposed system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.
[00058] As shown in FIG. 4, computer system can include an external storage device 410, a bus 420, a main memory 430, a read only memory 440, a mass storage device 450, communication port 460, and a processor 470. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that computer system may include more than one processor and communication ports. Examples of processor 470 include, but are not limited to, an Intel® Itanium® or Itanium 2 processor(s), or AMD® Opteron® or Athlon MP® processor(s), Motorola® lines of processors, FortiSOC™ system on a chip processors or other future processors. Processor 470 may include various modules associated with embodiments of the present invention. Communication port 460 can be any of an RS-232 port for use with a modem based dialup connection, a 10/100 Ethernet port, a Gigabit or 10 Gigabit port using copper or fiber, a serial port, a parallel port, or other existing or future ports. Communication port 460 may be chosen depending on a network, such a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or any network to which computer system connects.
[00059] Memory 430 can be Random Access Memory (RAM), or any other dynamic storage device commonly known in the art. Read only memory 440 can be any static storage device(s) e.g., but not limited to, a Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM) chips for storing static information e.g., start-up or BIOS instructions for processor 470. Mass storage 450 may be any current or future mass storage solution, which can be used to store information and/or instructions. Exemplary mass storage solutions include, but are not limited to, Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard disk drives or solid-state drives (internal or external, e.g., having Universal Serial Bus (USB) and/or Firewire interfaces), e.g. those available from Seagate (e.g., the Seagate Barracuda 7102 family) or Hitachi (e.g., the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000), one or more optical discs, Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage, e.g. an array of disks (e.g., SATA arrays), available from various vendors including Dot Hill Systems Corp., LaCie, Nexsan Technologies, Inc. and Enhance Technology, Inc.
[00060] Bus 420 communicatively couples processor(s) 470 with the other memory, storage and communication blocks. Bus 420 can be, e.g. a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) / PCI Extended (PCI-X) bus, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), USB or the like, for connecting expansion cards, drives and other subsystems as well as other buses, such a front side bus (FSB), which connects processor 470 to software system.
[00061] Optionally, operator and administrative interfaces, e.g. a display, keyboard, and a cursor control device, may also be coupled to bus 420 to support direct operator interaction with computer system. Other operator and administrative interfaces can be provided through network connections connected through communication port 460. External storage device 410 can be any kind of external hard-drives, floppy drives, IOMEGA® Zip Drives, Compact Disc - Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), Compact Disc - Re-Writable (CD-RW), Digital Video Disk - Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM). Components described above are meant only to exemplify various possibilities. In no way should the aforementioned exemplary computer system limit the scope of the present disclosure.
[00062] Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented entirely hardware, entirely software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or combining software and hardware implementation that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” “component,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
[00063] While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims that follow. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.
[00064] While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims that follow. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.

ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE
[00065] The present disclosure provides a method for providing a Flow Duration Curve (FDC) that provides fundamental pieces of information that is fed into a design of a hydropower project.
[00066] The present disclosure provides a method that facilitates to provide FDC that supplies data about flow characteristics of a river for a selected region subjected to all recorded flows in the river.
[00067] The present disclosure provides a method that facilitates to provide FDC where daily, weekly, or monthly flow values are used.
[00068] The present disclosure provides a method that facilitates to provide FDC analysis where different flow rates are suggested for different ecological processes.
[00069] The present disclosure provides a method that facilitates to provide Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) for facilitating standardization, which ensures that frequency of extreme events at any location and on any time scale is consistent.

[00070] The present disclosure provides a method that facilitates to provide SPI with a variable time scale that facilitates to provide analysis of drought dynamics, especially for determination of onset and cessation.

Claims:1. A method for managing an environmental flow requirement for a predefined physical area, said method comprising:
receiving, at a processor of a remote computing device, a first set of data packets indicative of rainfall gauge data and a second set of data packets indicative of a rainfall data associated with the predefined physical area;
determining, at the processor, a Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on the received first set of data packets and the second set of data packets;
receiving, at the processor, a third set of data packets indicative of a flow meter, a fourth set of data packets indicative of a flow data associated with the predefined physical area;
determining, at the processor, a Flow duration curve (FDC) based on the received third set of data packets and the fourth set of data packets; and
determining, at the processor, a correlation between the determined SPI and the FDC to determine and manage the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predefined physical area is a river basin.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the environmental flow is indicative of an amount of water available within a water body to maintain ecosystem.
4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the water body is any of a river, a wetland or a coastal zone.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the FDC depends on the flow data and assess the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the FDC further comprises determination of a probability of a particular discharge that occurs in the predefined physical area.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is determined using an absolute fit of a gamma frequency distribution as a probability function to first, second, third and fourth set of data packets determined within the predefined physical area.
8. A system for managing an environmental flow requirement for a predefined physical area, the system comprising a remote computing device comprising a processor coupled with a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to :
receive a first set of data packets indicative of rainfall gauge data and a second set of data packets indicative of a rainfall data associated with the predefined physical area;
determine a Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) based on the received first set of data packets and the second set of data packets;
receive a third set of data packets indicative of a flow meter, a fourth set of data packets indicative of a flow data associated with the predefined physical area;
determine a Flow duration curve (FDC) based on the received third set of data packets and the fourth set of data packets; and
determine a correlation between the determined SPI and the FDC to determine and manage the environmental flow requirement for the predefined physical area.
9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the FDC further comprises determination of a probability of a particular discharge that occurs in the predefined physical area.
10. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is determined using an absolute fit of a gamma frequency distribution as a probability function to first, second, third and fourth set of data packets determined within the predefined physical area.