Minimization of Operational and Seepage Losses in Agricultural Water Distribution Systems Using the Ant Colony Optimization

Abstract

The present study’s main objective is to simultaneously minimize operational and seepage losses in agricultural water distribution systems, relying on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). For this purpose, the following arrangements were made: i) Hydraulic flow simulation of the distribution systems was conducted by developing an Integrator Delay (ID) model using MATLAB and appraisal performance of the water distribution system, ii) The seepage simulation alongside the system employing a calibrated and validated estimation equation, iii) developing the ACO model to minimize operational and seepage losses within the agricultural water distribution Systems. Two single-objective and one multi-objective functions were considered to minimize seepage loss, operational loss, and both loss components simultaneously. The Moghan irrigation water distribution system, Iran, was selected as the case study. Optimization results revealed that the first through third objective functions managed to reduce the total losses in the Moghan water distribution systems by, respectively, 0.39, 3.1, and 4% compared to the existing conditions. A comparison with the optimization results from LINGO, a nonlinear optimization model, was suggestive of the advantages of the ACO in terms of the optimal result and optimization time. The proposed method can be used as a practical measure to improve water productivity within the scale of agricultural water distribution systems by improving the manual operating system’s performance in the status quo.