IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEMIC APPROACH AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING IN THE DESIGN OF SMALL DAMS

Abstract

Over the past few years, Algeria has embarked on a vast program to build small dams. The small size of dams, the scattered nature of the irrigation schemes, and the randomness of rainfall are among the parameters that motivated managers to implement this resource mobilization strategy. However, the results obtained were not in good agreement with the expected objectives of this program. Indeed, the assessment performed on approximately twenty small dams located in western Algeria showed many shortcomings that were mainly linked to technical design criteria. In addition, these shortcomings were the result of the lack of overall vision and the lack of interaction between the different branches of study of these structures. The systems approach, which is based on the principles of organization, interdependence, prioritization, coordination and integration, in combination with the requirements engineering, can be of great help in ensuring the reliability and good performance for this type of structure. The present paper attempts to address this issue by proposing the implementation of these two principles, namely, the systemic approach and the requirements engineering, for the design of small dams. An analysis is then carried out to address the conceptual aspects of small dams in three distinct zones: the watershed, the dam site, and the downstream zone. The objectives and missions of the system combined with the requirements of the different operators, the functional review of subsystem design, and the elements and components, including the interactive aspect, made it possible, through a multicriteria performance analysis, to produce the correlation matrices of the weighted requirements. The functional decomposition of the system into subsystems and interactive elements has led to the reorientation of the study of its performance with a reliability research approach. The analysis of the system requirements was broken down into sub-systems and components and helped to assess the weights of the various hierarchical needs, at different levels of decomposition. Significant differences were recorded on the weights of the various requirements of the system reflecting its performance and this in the two cases of situation: independent requirements and interactive requirements.