Your Complete Tool for Managing Water Stores, Sources and Allocations
Irrigation scheduling often starts with a simple question: how much water should we apply today? But an equally important question is: how much water do we actually have?
SWAN Systems’ Water Supply Manager (WSM) was developed to answer that – not only for today, but for the full season. It brings structure and visibility to the often-overlooked supply side of irrigation management.
Three Key Components
The WSM supports management across three critical areas:
- Water Sources – including rivers, bores, channels, or purchased supply
- Water Stores – on-farm storage such as dams, tanks, or reservoirs
- Water Allocations – licensed entitlements and usage limits
Each of these can be tracked in SWAN to give users a clear picture of current water availability, usage, and remaining entitlements.
Water Sources
Sources refer to the origin of water entering the system – such as a bore or river – and are linked to flow meters that measure usage. SWAN supports both master meters (e.g. at the farm gate or pump outlet) and site-level meters. Generic water meters can also be used, where readings are taken manually. All usage data is aggregated within SWAN for streamlined reporting.
Water Stores
Water stores can be configured with depth-to-volume relationships, allowing for automatic volume estimation when paired with depth meters. These stores are recorded as infrastructure within SWAN and may be updated over time – for example, to reflect changes in capacity or infrastructure works. Volume data can be manually entered or automatically fed into the system, depending on available equipment.
Water Allocations
Many users operate under a regulated water licence or entitlement. The Allocations feature allows for tracking of total volume, linked sources, usage to date, and remaining balance. Monthly budgets can be set and reviewed, and transactions – including purchases or sales – can be recorded. For those managing restricted volumes or sub-seasons (e.g. drought allocations), sub-allocation tracking is also available.
Bringing It All Together
By grouping infrastructure and allocations into Water Supply Management groups, users can view key supply metrics directly on the SWAN dashboard – including available water, usage trends, and performance against allocation targets. These views support operational decisions, compliance reporting, and long-term planning.
Whether it’s a dry year, a wet one, or something in between, SWAN Systems’ Water Supply Manager gives you the tools to account for what you have, understand what you’re using, and plan for what’s next, all within a single, integrated system.
