Abstract
In this work, an interval-parameter two-stage stochastic programming (IPTSP) model of water resources allocation was established for maximizing the restored habitat area of large, rare, and endangered water birds by adjusting the recommended scheme of water replenishment under different scenarios and constraints. The established model can efficiently deal with the uncertainties, such as the interval parameters and random variables, in the management system of water resources simultaneously. A case study was conducted in the Momoge National Nature Reserve (MNNR) in northeast China to maximize the restored habitat area of large, rare and endangered water birds based on limited water resources. According to the previous studies, a water area with a depth of 0–40 cm is a suitable habitat area in the MNNR for the Siberian crane, oriental stork, and red-crowned crane. The results of the present work show that the habitat area restored by water replenishment schemes under low, medium, and high flood flow scenarios after optimization increased in comparison to 13.36 × 103 ha of the recommended scheme, with an increase of [0.62, 5.23], [1.49, 6.42], and [2.43, 7.17] × 103 ha, respectively (the two numbers within each bracket represent the lower and upper bounds of the restored habitat areas). As a result, the carrying capacity of suitable habitat areas increased by [0.82, 6.88], [1.96, 8.45], and [3.21, 9.43] × 103 birds, correspondingly. The restored wetland area of the project recommendation scheme was 34.23 × 103 ha, and that of the optimal water replenishment schemes was [29.35, 41.01], [31.02, 44.13], and [33.88, 46.04] × 103 ha, respectively under the three flood flow scenarios. The results reveal that the model constructed in this work realizes the optimization and adjustment of the initial scheme to an increased restored wetland and habitat area with an increase in the flow level. Here, the upper bound of the interval value mentioned above is significantly higher than the lower bound value, which indicates that a feasible decision space was provided for decision makers to optimize and adjust the recommended scheme on the basis of the actual situation. The model-optimized schemes significantly improved the utilization of limited water resources. The results of this study can provide valuable theoretical support for the restoration and protection of rare and endangered water bird habitats and planning and management of water resources.
Highlights
A wetland is known as the “kidney of the earth” that provides important ecological services such as material production, flood control, water storage, pollution degradation, and climate regulation [1,2,3,4], and is an important habitat and breeding ground for rare and endangered water birds [5]
It is clear that with the increase in the inflow, the water shortage of each intake decreases gradually, and the optimal water supply in the Momoge National Nature Reserve (MNNR) continuously increases. These results indicate that the supply from the water resources in the MNNR is less than the demand, and the MNNR is in a state of water shortage
The constructed model can efficiently deal with the random uncertainty of the flood resources and the interval parameters in the water resources system of the MNNR
Summary
A wetland is known as the “kidney of the earth” that provides important ecological services such as material production, flood control, water storage, pollution degradation, and climate regulation [1,2,3,4], and is an important habitat and breeding ground for rare and endangered water birds [5]. Ecological service value can be used as an important assessment index of wetland restoration projects [38] It is the restoration of the habitat areas for water birds and other factors such as ecological service value and the water supply capacity, which should be considered in the process of ecological water replenishment for wetlands, especially in the MNNR where water resources are scarce [39]. In this work, an optimal allocation model of water resources was constructed based on the interval-parameter two-stage stochastic programming (IPTSP) method for maximizing the restored habitat area of rare water birds. The constructed model was applied to investigate the optimization of the restored habitat area of the study species in the MNNR in the Jilin Province by optimization and adjustment of the ecological water replenishment of the recommended plan under different flood flow scenarios.
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