2.6.1.3.6 Rules to simulate industry water discharge

A simple set of rules to simulate industry water discharge within the Hunter River Salinity Trading Scheme (HRSTS) was developed based on the analysis reported in Section 2.1.4 in companion product 2.1-2.2 for the Hunter subregion (Herron et al., 2018a). The resulting rules are not intended to replicate the operations of HRSTS, which is a real-time scheme contingent upon human decision making. Instead, the summary rules were developed that describe the gross characteristics of the scheme and are amenable to prospective (i.e. future) modelling.Discharges under HRSTS are simulated when modelled streamflow exceeds the prescribed thresholds at three locations along the Hunter River. Discharge amounts at these locations are modelled as functions of the mean annual HRSTS discharges and the rate of discharge as a function of streamflow volume in exceedance of the thresholds. Both these variables were obtained from analysis of historical releases. Any modelled discharges are assumed to be distributed from all mines upstream of the three reaches.