Hydrology

Background:

Hydrology is the study of the movement and distribution of water resources. This is an important field of study in a dry climate like Utah. Although controversy surrounded the construction and filling of the Glen Canyon Dam, the dam has a fascinating impact on southern Utah and Arizona. The surface area of Lake Powell is (the lake behind the dam) 966 square miles and it has almost 2000 miles of shoreline. The capacity is 24,000,000 acre feet (EACH acre foot is the water it takes to cover one acre one foot deep; this is about 326,000 gallons or about 1,233,000 liters). In order to make things simple we will use the abbreviation MAF for a Million Acre Feet.
Naturally you cannot fill a 24 MAF reservoir like Lake Powell overnight. Nor can you simply shut off all of the downstream flow for a few years, while the reservoir fills. About 13.5 MAF flow into Lake Powell every year. By law, at least 7.5 MAF must be allowed to flow out, leaving 6 MAF  to fill the lake with ON AVERAGE.  Unfortunately dry climates like Utah rarely behave like the average (it’s been suggested that every year is below average). In the case of Lake Powell the annual inflow can be anywhere between about 22 MAF and 4 MAF. Your task is to write a program that will help us calculate how quickly a reservoir like Lake Powell might take to fill. Do this by simulating the random inflow and specific outflow for each year until you reach capacity. Simulate this filling process 10 times and report the maximum, average and minimum number of years required to achieve the objective.

Requirements: Design, implement and test a C++ program that:

•    prompts the user for:

1. The name of the reservoir
2. The capacity of the reservoir in MAF (Millions of Acre Feet)
3. The minimum inflow in MAF
4. The maximum inflow in MAF
5. The required outflow in MAF

•    simulates future years in order to predict when the reservoir will be full

1. To make a single prediction, simulate as many years as needed to accumulate the amount of water needed to fill the reservoir.
2. For each year, simulate the inflow randomly between the minimum and maximum inflow given by the user.
3. Make 10 predictions using the same input data (i.e., without re-prompting the user) but using different random numbers to determine the inflow.
4. Print the results of the simulations as each completes.
5. Be careful with the required outflow.  Note that if the inflow plus the current contents of the reservoir is less than the required outflow, you can release only that total. The reservoir can not go negative.
6. Report the average, lowest, and highest number of years needed based on the 10 predictions.

•    When the simulations are done, give the user the option to simulate another reservoir.