Possibilistic Stochastic Water Management Model for Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution

Abstract

Agricultural activities are the main contributors of nonpoint source water pollution within agricultural systems. In this study, a possibilistic stochastic water management (PSWM) model is developed and applied to a case study of water quality management within an agricultural system in China. This study is a first application of hybrid possibilistic chance-constrained programming approach to nonpoint source water quality management problems within an agricultural system. Hybrid uncertainties with the synergy of fuzzy and stochastic implications are effectively characterized by the PSWM model with the following advantages: (1) it improves upon the existing possibilistic and chance-constrained programming methods through direct incorporation of fuzziness and randomness within a general optimization framework; (2) it will not lead to more complicated intermediate models and thus have lower computational requirements; (3) its solutions offer flexibility in interpreting the results and reflect the interaction...