Canal and river water diversion management may appear to be a routine operational task, but it involves a series of closely connected processes:
- Daily water-condition data collection
- Diversion review
- Conveyance-loss allocation
- Daily verification
- Monthly settlement
- Water-suspension handling
Each stage directly affects the accuracy of water-volume data and the fairness of settlement results.
In practice, however, intake and discharge data is often distributed across different personnel and systems.
Automated monitoring values must be compared manually with entered figures. Review, verification, and settlement processes may lack strict workflow controls. At the end of each month, repeated checks, recalculations, and confirmations are still common.
These challenges are not necessarily caused by a lack of technical capability.
More often, they result from fragmented processes, inconsistent data management, and insufficient coordination between different operational roles.
A water resources management platform can address these issues by connecting data entry, review, verification, settlement, and exception handling within a controlled and traceable workflow.
1. A Unified Entry Point: Making Daily Water Data Traceable
Daily river and canal diversion data entry is the starting point of the entire workflow.
The platform centrally manages water levels and flow rates according to:
- Date
- Management organization
- Monitoring station
- Intake or discharge outlet type
This helps standardize data definitions at the source.
Automated monitoring values and manually entered figures are displayed on the same page. Management personnel can therefore identify missing records, abnormal values, and data awaiting review without waiting until month-end settlement.
The data-entry stage addresses a fundamental question:
Is each day’s intake and discharge data complete, traceable, and already included in the review workflow?
By consolidating data at the beginning of the process, the platform provides a clearer foundation for subsequent review, verification, and settlement.
2. Review Controls: Deciding Whether Data Can Proceed
Once data has been entered, it must be reviewed before it can move into verification and settlement.
Within the diversion review function, the following information is displayed together:
- Automated monitoring data
- Manually entered data
- Data variances
- Relevant coefficients
- Reviewer information
- Review timestamps
Review personnel can first verify the data source and on-site conditions before deciding whether the recorded water volume should enter the next stage of the workflow.
Reviewed data then becomes the basis for monthly statistics.
When an issue occurs, users can trace it back to the specific review stage and determine whether it was caused by:
- Abnormal source collection
- Incorrect manual entry
- Missing or incomplete review
- Improper parameter or coefficient configuration
The value of the review stage lies in establishing a clear control point:
Not all entered data should automatically proceed to settlement. It must first be confirmed.
This prevents unchecked records from directly affecting monthly results.
3. Verification and Settlement: Converting Daily Data into Monthly Results
Verification and settlement are the key stages in converting daily operational data into monthly outcomes.
Daily Diversion Verification
Daily verification rechecks each day’s records.
Unreviewed data cannot proceed directly to settlement, ensuring that incomplete or unconfirmed records do not enter the monthly calculation process.
For a small number of records, users can make adjustments directly on the page.
For larger volumes of data, corrections can be completed through export and import, balancing operational efficiency with data accuracy.
Monthly Settlement
Monthly settlement consolidates:
- Reviewed water volumes
- Settlement volumes
- Reporting status
- Submission status
Once results are submitted, they are locked to prevent arbitrary changes.
Monthly settlement-volume verification summarizes data by river basin, year, and month, providing a structured basis for confirming monthly outcomes.
When reviewed water volumes and settlement volumes do not match, users can trace the discrepancy back to:
- Daily water-condition data
- Shared-allocation coefficients
- Water-volume distribution records
- Special-period handling records
The overall process follows a clear rule:
Review first, verify second, and submit last.
Each stage remains traceable, and each result can be linked back to its supporting data.
4. Managing Special Periods: Centralized Water-Suspension Handling
Water-condition data generated during suspension periods requires special treatment.
Without clear controls, this data may be incorrectly included in normal settlement, affecting the accuracy of monthly results.
Batch Suspension Review
The batch suspension review function allows users to filter monitoring stations according to:
- Management organization
- Suspension period
- Monitoring station
Users select stations on the left side of the interface and review water levels, flow rates, and current status on the right.
This reduces the need to locate and process records one by one.
The function is especially useful when multiple monitoring stations are affected during the same suspension period.
Batch Suspension Cancellation
Operational conditions may change, or users may select the wrong time range or monitoring station during processing.
In these situations, the batch suspension cancellation function provides a correction mechanism.
After selecting the relevant management organization and time period, users can review data that has already been processed according to suspension rules.
Records that should not have been included can then be cancelled in batches and restored to the normal processing workflow.
Used together, batch suspension review and batch suspension cancellation support two important requirements:
- Efficient handling of special-period data
- Timely correction when operational conditions or processing decisions change
This prevents exception handling from becoming a one-way operation without a recovery path.
5. Allocation and Distribution: Clarifying How Water Volumes Are Assigned
Two common challenges arise during river and canal water conveyance:
- How should conveyance losses be allocated?
- How should water volumes from shared intake outlets be distributed?
The platform addresses both through standardized allocation and distribution functions.
Shared-Allocation Coefficient Management
Shared-allocation coefficient management maintains allocation coefficients by river basin and effective date.
This ensures that loss-allocation rules remain documented and traceable.
These coefficients participate in the review and settlement process. Once approved, they should not be changed arbitrarily, helping prevent inconsistencies between earlier and later calculations.
When a dispute occurs, users can trace:
- The coefficient used
- Its effective date
- The corresponding diversion records
- The related settlement results
This makes allocation rules easier to verify and explain.
Shared Intake Outlet Water-Volume Distribution
A shared intake outlet may serve multiple water users.
In these situations, the total water volume must be distributed among different recipients, such as:
- Counties
- Cities
- Townships
- Individual water users
The platform maintains allocated volumes, default proportions, and monthly settlement status within the same table.
This makes pre-settlement verification easier and reduces inconsistencies caused by manual calculations across multiple spreadsheets.
It also provides a clearer basis for resolving distribution-related questions or disputes.
Incidental Water-Use Management
Incidental water-use management provides an additional mechanism for handling dispersed water consumption outside standard intake outlets.
Annual queries display cumulative yearly usage, while monthly entry functions supplement the water volumes required for settlement.
The platform retains information such as:
- Data-entry operator
- Modification time
- Settlement status
These records support later review, verification, and accountability.
6. A Closed-Loop Workflow: Full-Process Traceability
The river and canal diversion scenario forms a complete operational loop, covering the entire process from intake outlet master data to monthly settlement and reporting.
Daily Data Collection
Daily intake and discharge data entry consolidates both automated monitoring values and manually entered figures.
Diversion Review
River and canal diversion review confirms whether the data is reliable and whether it can proceed to verification.
Allocation and Distribution
Shared-allocation coefficients, shared intake outlet distribution, and incidental water-use entry standardize settlement rules across different users and scenarios.
Verification and Settlement
Daily diversion verification corrects issues in individual records, while monthly settlement-volume verification generates reviewed and settled water volumes.
Submission and Exception Controls
Submission locking protects confirmed results, while batch suspension review and cancellation provide additional controls for special-period data.
Together, these capabilities transform intake management from:
Manual records, month-end consolidation, and after-the-fact explanations
into:
Daily data entry, online review, process-based verification, monthly settlement, and status locking
This change is not limited to replacing paper forms with digital pages.
It establishes a controlled process in which each stage has clear inputs, outputs, responsibilities, and status records.
7. From Data Recording to Process Coordination
When every intake outlet has a complete data trail, every water volume has a documented review record, and every settlement result is supported by traceable evidence, river and canal diversion management gains a stronger foundation for standardization.
It also improves collaboration between:
- Monitoring personnel
- Data-entry personnel
- Review personnel
- Settlement personnel
- Management departments
Instead of repeatedly checking fragmented records at the end of the month, teams can identify issues earlier in the workflow.
Missing data can be found during entry. Abnormal values can be addressed during review. Calculation differences can be traced during verification. Special-period records can be handled separately before settlement.
This shifts management from after-the-fact correction toward process-based control.
Conclusion
Digitalization is not the final goal.
The real objective is to make river and canal diversion management more accurate, efficient, and traceable.
When data entry, review, verification, allocation, settlement, and exception handling are connected through a controlled workflow, manual records and repeated spreadsheet reconciliation can gradually be replaced by an online process.
The value of the platform lies not only in centralizing data, but also in ensuring that:
- Daily records are complete
- Review responsibilities are clear
- Verification results are traceable
- Allocation rules are documented
- Settlement outcomes are supported by evidence
- Special-period data can be processed and corrected efficiently
By connecting the full workflow from diversion verification to suspension review, the water resources management platform provides a more standardized foundation for long-term operational management.
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