Abstract
Abstract Linking ecohydraulic modeling and reservoir operation optimization is a requirement for robust management of the environmental degradations at the downstream of the reservoirs. The present study proposes and evaluates an ecohydraulic-based expert system to optimize environmental flow at the downstream of the reservoirs. Three fuzzy inference systems including physical habitat assessment, water quality assessment and combined suitability assessment were developed based on the expert panel method. Moreover, water temperature and dissolved oxygen were simulated by the coupled particle swarm optimization (PSO)–adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. Three evolutionary algorithms including PSO, differential evolution algorithm (DE) and biogeography-based optimization were applied to optimize the environmental flow regime. A fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution was applied to select the best evolutionary algorithm to assess environmental flow. Based on the results in the case study, the proposed method provides a robust framework for simultaneous management of environmental flow and water supply. DE was selected as the best algorithm to optimize environmental flow. The optimization system was able to balance habitat losses, storage loss and water supply loss that might reduce negotiations between the stakeholders and environmental managers in the reservoir management.
Highlights
The importance of dams has been highlighted in the literature due to their significant role in the development of the communities (Altinbilek 2002)
Three evolutionary algorithms were utilized in the present study including particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution algorithm (DE) and biogeography-based optimization (BBO)
rootmean-square error (RMSE) and Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE) indicate that the optimization model is able to provide sufficient combined suitability for downstream river ecosystems compared with the natural flow
Summary
The importance of dams has been highlighted in the literature due to their significant role in the development of the communities (Altinbilek 2002). Developing the novel form of the optimization system is required that should be able to consider reservoir benefits and complex environmental issues simultaneously. The present study proposes an integrated expert system to optimize the environmental flow regime at the downstream of the reservoir that might help the water resource managers to overcome the environmental complexities in the reservoir management. Ecohydraulic engineering was developed to manage environmental requirements of the river ecosystem in which interactions between abiotic factors such as water quality and quantity with habitat suitability could be utilized for simulating habitats. The present study might open new windows to apply the knowledge-based system in the environmental management in the structure of the water resource operation systems. The proposed framework provides an upgradable environment that could demonstrate the high efficiency of the knowledgebased system to solve environmental challenges of the water resource systems
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