Development of a Multi-Reservoir Flood Control Optimization Model: Application to the Karkheh River Basin, Iran

Abstract

Flood control as an important purpose of reservoir systems faces a wide range of natural, social and political challenges, mainly due to different uncertainties. Over the time, these uncertainties call for necessary changes in the original plan of the systems. Therefore, construction of new flood control systems as well as the storage reallocation and reservoir reoperation of existing ones are essential for adapting the systems to new information, conditions and policies. Furthermore, multipurpose nature of the multi-reservoir systems requires considering conflicts among various purposes. In this paper, a multiobjective optimization model is developed for analyzing such conflicts in a changing environment. The developed model is applied to Karkheh Reservoir system in the west of Iran. Karkheh reservoir system has six large multipurpose reservoirs in its first master plan from which two have already been constructed. In this study, three storm based flood events were generated and used in the optimization model. The results have demonstrated a large trade-off among different reservoir purposes, and showed the merits of considering such conflicts.