Water Resources Management Problems Research Articles

Planning an Agricultural Water Resources Management System: A Two-Stage Stochastic Fractional Programming Model

Irrigation water management is crucial for agricultural production and livelihood security in many regions and countries throughout the world. In this study, a two-stage stochastic fractional programming (TSFP) method is developed for planning an agricultural water resources management system under uncertainty. TSFP can provide an effective linkage between conflicting economic benefits and the associated penalties; it can also balance conflicting objectives and maximize the system marginal benefit with per unit of input under uncertainty. The developed TSFP method is applied to a real case of agricultural water resources management of the Zhangweinan River Basin China, which is one of the main food and cotton producing regions in north China and faces serious water shortage. The results demonstrate that the TSFP model is advantageous in balancing conflicting objectives and reflecting complicated relationships among multiple system factors. Results also indicate that, under the optimized irrigation target, the optimized water allocation rate of Minyou Channel and Zhangnan Channel are 57.3% and 42.7%, respectively, which adapts the changes in the actual agricultural water resources management problem. Compared with the inexact two-stage water management (ITSP) method, TSFP could more effectively address the sustainable water management problem, provide more information regarding tradeoffs between multiple input factors and system benefits, and help the water managers maintain sustainable water resources development of the Zhangweinan River Basin.

A Decomposition-Based Evolutionary Algorithm for Many Objective Optimization

Decomposition-based evolutionary algorithms have been quite successful in solving optimization problems involving two and three objectives. Recently, there have been some attempts to exploit the strengths of decomposition-based approaches to deal with many objective optimization problems. Performance of such approaches are largely dependent on three key factors: 1) means of reference point generation; 2) schemes to simultaneously deal with convergence and diversity; and 3) methods to associate solutions to reference directions. In this paper, we introduce a decomposition-based evolutionary algorithm wherein uniformly distributed reference points are generated via systematic sampling, balance between convergence and diversity is maintained using two independent distance measures, and a simple preemptive distance comparison scheme is used for association. In order to deal with constraints, an adaptive epsilon formulation is used. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using standard benchmark problems, i.e., DTLZ1-DTLZ4 for 3, 5, 8, 10, and 15 objectives, WFG1-WFG9, the car side impact problem, the water resource management problem, and the constrained ten-objective general aviation aircraft design problem. Results of problems involving redundant objectives and disconnected Pareto fronts are also included in this paper to illustrate the capability of the algorithm. The study clearly highlights that the proposed algorithm is better or at par with recent reference direction-based approaches for many objective optimization.

Problem Archetypes as Common Ground for Water Resources Management Education

As a broad field, water resources management can have a blurry focus without a mechanism to coordinate the perspectives of its disciplines and sectors. If these can be harmonized, the result might be clearer explanations and improved outcomes. The paper probes whether identification of common problem archetypes can help to harmonize perspectives and improve education through more consistent treatment of recurring issues in case studies. An analysis of variables is presented to create a classification system to describe the architecture of water resources management problems, with emphasis on scale and management functions. The feasibility of using them is explored by an analysis of six sources of case studies, with a focus on those posted by the Global Water Partnership. From the analysis, it was evident that more emphasis was on policy and management than on technical tools. Most policy-level cases had a development focus and addressed multiple issues. Management–level cases addressed efficiency, productivity, reforms, and problem-solving. Technical discussions involved analysis methods partitioned by disciplines. The results show that cases can be identified primarily by management functions, with secondary classifiers such as scale, sectors, and number of authorities involved. A set of problem archetypes was assembled from the basic classification system and are available for educational experimentation to address cross-sector problems by explaining the big picture while keeping the field of analysis uncluttered. Their use is expected to be limited in the fragmented field of water resources management education due to the focus on disciplinary tools and most use may be capacity-building programs with a focus on problem-solving.

Water reservoir as resource of raw material for ceramic industry

The industries related to the ceramics such as construction bricks, pottery and tile are the important sectors that cover the large part of the working population in Tunisia. The raw materials, clay or silt are excavated from opencast site of limestone clay stratum. The opencast site give the negative impact on landscape and environment, risks of landslide, soil erosion etc. On the other hand, a most serious problem in water resource management, especially in arid land such as Tunisia, is sedimentation in reservoirs. Sediment accumulation in the reservoirs reduces the water storage capacity. The authors proposed the exploitation of the sediment as raw material for the ceramics industries in the previous studies because the sediment in Tunisia is fine silt. In this study, the potential of the water reservoirs in Tunisia as the resource of the raw material for the ceramics industries is estimated from the sedimentation ratio in the water reservoirs.

Comparison of Info-gap and Robust Optimisation Methods for Integrated Water Resource Management under Severe Uncertainty

This paper evaluates two established decision making methods and analyses their performance and suitability within an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) problem. The methods under comparison are Info-Gap decision theory (IG) and Robust Optimisation (RO), with particular regard to two key issues: (a) a local vs global measure of water supply robustness and (b) a pre-specified vs optimisation method of generating intervention strategies. Solutions are compared with plans proposed from current industry practice especially in regard to employing a longer planning horizon. The results reveal the impact of using alternative methodologiesand analysis parameters on the final intervention strategies selected.

Comparison between change point detection methods with synthetic rainfall data and application in South Korea

Change point analysis is an efficient tool to understand the fundamental information in hydro-meteorological data such as rainfall, discharge, temperature etc. Especially, the result of a reasonable change point detection method can be effectively used in the prediction of flood and drought because it provides a key to resolve the non-stationary or inhomogeneous problem by climate change. However, relatively few studies have addressed the performance of the change point detection skills through comparative study and applications using real data. Therefore, in this study, the comparative study to assess the performance of the three change point detection skills; Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) method, Bayesian Change Point (BCP) method, and segmentation by Dynamic Programming (DP) was performed. After assessment of the performance of the proposed detection skills, the two reasonable detection skills were applied to the observed and future rainfall data at the 5 rainfall gauges in South Korea. The three types of the synthetic rainfall data, homogeneous series and inhomogeneous series with a single shift and multiple shifts were generated firstly to assess performance of the detection skills. Especially, the exact number of change points, position error of detected change points and the three indicators were used to assess performance of each detection skill. Finally, it was suggested that BCP (with 0.9 posterior probability) could be best detection skill and DP could be reasonably recommended through the comparative study. Also it was suggested that BCP (with 0.9 posterior probability) and DP detection skills to find some change points could be reasonable at the North-eastern part in South Korea. In future, the results in this study can be efficiently used to resolve the non-stationary problems in water resources management and design of hydraulic structures.

Improve Urban River Water Quality by Integrating Water Resource Management into Urban Construction

Increasing population and urbanization pose more and more threats to urban river. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is possible framework to solve water resource management problems through cross-sectional cooperation, but the vagueness in this concept make its application difficult. This paper focuses on urban river management practices in China and classified the government-guided cross-sectional urban river management projects to a special pattern of IWRM (GIWRM). It is proved to be effective in synthesizing efforts of different government departments, industry and the public and improve the urban river conditions a lot.

Karst water resources in a changing world: Review of hydrological modeling approaches

Karst regions represent 7–12% of the Earth's continental area, and about one quarter of the global population is completely or partially dependent on drinking water from karst aquifers. Climate simulations project a strong increase in temperature and a decrease of precipitation in many karst regions in the world over the next decades. Despite this potentially bleak future, few studies specifically quantify the impact of climate change on karst water resources. This review provides an introduction to karst, its evolution, and its particular hydrological processes. We explore different conceptual models of karst systems and how they can be translated into numerical models of varying complexity and therefore varying data requirements and depths of process representation. We discuss limitations of current karst models and show that at the present state, we face a challenge in terms of data availability and information content of the available data. We conclude by providing new research directions to develop and evaluate better prediction models to address the most challenging problems of karst water resources management, including opportunities for data collection and for karst model applications at so far unprecedented scales.

Oil leak contaminates tap water: a view of drinking water security crisis in China

A number of drinking water pollution incidents occurred frequently in recent years and imperiled the drinking water security for residents. Safeguarding drinking water has been an urgent task during the current economic development. Looking at the events in the cities of Hangzhou and Lanzhou, the importance of drinking water supply and security, and the existing problems in water resources management become apparent. Nationwide drinking water safety precautions need to be upgraded and environmental supervision needs to be stricter in order to attain environmentally friendly standards and practices in China.

Two-stage credibility-constrained programming with Hurwicz criterion (TCP-CH) for planning water resources management

In water-resources management problems, uncertainties exist in a number of impact factors and water-allocation processes, which can bring about enormous difficulties and challenges in generating desired decision alternatives under such complexities. In this study, a two-stage credibility-constrained programming with Hurwicz criterion (TCP-CH) approach is developed for water resources management and planning under uncertainty. TCP-CH can tackle uncertainties presented as probability distributions and fuzzy sets that exist in left- and right-hand sides of constraints and in objective function; it can also permit in-depth analyses of various policy scenarios based on confidence degrees that are associated with different levels of economic penalties when the promised targets are violated. The TCP-CH method is applied to a real case of planning water resources in Kaidu-qongque River basin, which is one of the aridest regions of China. Support-vector-regression (SVR) technique is introduced into TCP-CH for predicting the water demand in the future, which takes advantage of uncertainty reflection and dynamic analysis. Results of water allocation, water shortage, system benefit, and economic penalty are obtained. The results discover that water deficit has brought negative effects on regional economic development, particularly for agricultural production activities. Moreover, tradeoffs between economic benefit and system-failure risk are also examined under different risk preferences of decision makers (i.e., optimistic and pessimistic criteria), which support generating an increased robustness in risk control for water resources allocation under uncertainties. These findings can facilitate the local decision makers in adjusting the current water-allocation pattern based on risk preference option (Hurwicz criterion) to satisfy the increasing water demand.

A multi-level Taguchi-factorial two-stage stochastic programming approach for characterization of parameter uncertainties and their interactions: An application to water resources management

This paper presents a multi-level Taguchi-factorial two-stage stochastic programming (MTTSP) approach for supporting water resources management under parameter uncertainties and their interactions. MTTSP is capable of performing uncertainty analysis, policy analysis, factor screening, and interaction detection in a comprehensive and systematic way. A water resources management problem is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The results indicate that interval solutions can be generated for the objective function and decision variables, and a variety of decision alternatives can be obtained under different policy scenarios. The experimental data obtained from the Taguchi’s orthogonal array design are helpful in identifying the significant factors affecting the total net benefit. Then the findings from the multi-level factorial experiment reveal the latent interactions among those important factors and their curvature effects on the model response. Such a sequential strategy of experimental designs is useful in analyzing the interactions for a large number of factors in a computationally efficient manner.

Integrated modelling for agricultural policies and water resources planning coordination

Pressures due to agricultural activities play a major role in the status of water resources systems. The evaluation of the effects of agricultural policies is therefore a key problem in water resource planning and management. The work presented in this paper is an attempt to include the predictable effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) in the process of water resources planning at the basin scale prescribed by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The approach is based on the combined use of three models: (i) an economic model used to predict the likely land use scenarios at the basin scale following CAP reform; (ii) a spatially distributed hydrological model for the assessment of the related irrigation water requirements; and (iii) a decision model supporting stakeholders and decision makers in the process of water resources planning. The paper presents an application to a pilot study area in Northern Italy. The results highlight how the CAP may produce an adjustment in the agricultural sector, with a shift towards more extensive land use and to a greater diversification of production. The predicted changes in land use type and distribution are shown to have significant influence on water requirements, with a generalised decrease of their amount, which may exceed 10% in some areas. In turn, the decrease of irrigation demand can be exploited to achieve a higher degree of satisfaction of other water users in the basin and can improve the attainment of the WFD objectives.

Joint and respective effects of long- and short-term forecast uncertainties on reservoir operations

Summary Forecast uncertainties are a major problem in forecast-based water resource management. This study aims to improve the combined use of long- and short-term streamflow forecasts in reservoir operations by investigating the joint and respective effects of long- and short-term forecast uncertainties on decision-making processes. Forecast uncertainties in ensemble streamflow forecasts are explained, and the joint effect is characterized by a matrix of operation decisions. A novel statistical partitioning method is developed to diagnose the respective effects of long- and short-term forecast uncertainties, particularly on an experimental operation of the Danjiangkou Reservoir in China. Given the large regulating capacity of this reservoir, long-term forecast uncertainties inevitably surround its release decisions. When a fixed carried-over storage is used to couple long- and short-term forecasts, an ending storage effect is observed. As a stage approaches its end, the release decision becomes increasingly dependent on the carried-over storage, thereby increasing uncertainty in decision-making as a result of long-term forecast uncertainty. This finding highlights the importance of developing reliable long-term forecasts and selecting a proper carried-over storage to aid the decision-making process. This study proposes a sliding carried-over storage strategy to circumvent the ending storage effect. Results show that, using the same long-term forecast, the proposed strategy significantly alleviates the ending storage effect and reduces uncertainties in the decision-making process. The sliding carried-over storage strategy provides an efficient approach to the combined use of long- and short-term forecasts and improves reservoir operations.

A fuzzy inexact two-phase programming approach to solving optimal allocation problems in water resources management

Inappropriate agricultural activities are the main reasons of water shortage and environmental pollution in many rural areas. How to generate preferred decision schemes for agricultural activities is a critical issue for decision makers. In this study, a two-phase programming approach is advanced for regional water resources allocation in a rural region of China. The approach shows applicability when the uncertain inputs are provided as intervals and such uncertainty is desired to be delivered to the corresponding solutions. Multiple control variables are introduced both in the objective function and constraints of the programming model, which make it possible for the constraints being relaxed under respective levels. A more satisfactory objective value can thus be expected as well as the impact of each constraint on the modeling outputs can be clarified effectively. The decision variables are useful for decision makers to justify and/or adjust the decision schemes for agricultural activities through incorporation of their implicit knowledge on water allocation management.

Characterization of soluble microbial products as precursors of disinfection byproducts in drinking water supply

Water pollution by wastewater discharge can cause the problem of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water supply. In this study, DBP formation characteristics of soluble microbial products (SMPs) as the main products of wastewater organic biodegradation were investigated. The results show that SMPs can act as DBP precursors in simulated wastewater biodegradation process. Under the experimental conditions, stabilized SMPs had DBPFP (DBP formation potential) yield of around 5.6μmolmmol−1-DOC (dissolved organic carbon) and DBP speciation profile different from that of the conventional precursor, natural organic matter (NOM). SMPs contained polysaccharides, proteins, and humic-like substances, and the latter two groups can act as reactive DBP precursors. SMP fraction with molecular weight of <1kDa accounted for 85% of the organic carbon and 65% of the DBP formation. As small SMP molecules are more difficult to remove by conventional water treatment processes, more efforts are needed to control wastewater-derived DBP problem in water resource management.

Water Poverty Index in the Inland River Basins of Hexi Corridor, Gansu Province

Since the economic development and environment deteriorating, water security has become an increasingly serious problem in the world. A number of regions are suffering water scarcity and pollution. The Water Poverty Index (WPI) could provide a standardized evaluation framework for the utilization and development of water resources in a certain region. This article based on the calculation of WPI, analyzed the components of WPI at basin scale, and calculated the WPI at Shule river basin, Shiyang river basin and Heihe River Basin, thereby, identified the water security and find out the main problems of water resource management and utilization in the three inland river basins in Gansu corridor.

An integrated approach for water resources decision making under interactive and compound uncertainties

In recent years, the issue of water allocation among competing users has been of great concern for many countries due to increasing water demand from population growth and economic development. In water management systems, the inherent uncertainties and their potential interactions pose a significant challenge for water managers to identify optimal water-allocation schemes in a complex and uncertain environment. This paper thus proposes a methodology that incorporates optimization techniques and statistical experimental designs within a general framework to address the issues of uncertainty and risk as well as their correlations in a systematic manner. A water resources management problem is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. The results indicate that interval solutions can be generated for the objective function and decision variables, and a number of decision alternatives can be obtained under different policy scenarios. The solutions with different risk levels of constraint violation can help quantify the relationship between the economic objective and the system risk, which is meaningful for supporting risk management. The experimental data obtained from the Taguchi's orthogonal array design are useful for identifying the significant factors affecting the means of total net benefits. Then the findings from the mixed-level factorial experiment can help reveal the latent interactions between those significant factors at different levels and their effects on the modeling response.

Optimal Reservoir Operation Using MOPSO with Time Variant Inertia and Acceleration Coefficients

Recently application of optimization techniques has been suggested to derive reservoir operation policies for multi-objective reservoir systems. Water use involves a large number of stakeholders with different objectives. In reservoir operation some of objectives often are conflicting objectives, hence Optimization techniques are expected to provide balanced their solutions. This paper presents an efficient and reliable swarm intelligence-based approach, namely a novel Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach to Multi-Objective optimization Problems (MOP), called Time Variant Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (TV-MOPSO) technique, to derive a set of optimal operation policies for a multi-objective reservoir system. Classical optimization methods are often unable to attain a good Pareto front. To overcome this problem for Multi-Objective optimization Problem, this study employs a heuristic algorithm, Time Variant Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization to generate a Pareto optimal set. To show practical utility, TV-MOPSO is then applied to a realistic case study, namely the Doroodzan reservoir system in Iran. The reservoir serves multiple objectives comprise of minimizing domestic supply (industry) deficits, minimizing irrigation deficits and maximizing hydropower production in that order of priority. The results obtained demonstrate that Time Variant Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization is consistently performing better than the standard Particle Swarm Optimization. This study demonstrates the usefulness of Time Variant Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization for water resource management problem.

Hydrometeorological monitoring for water balance determination at plot scale

To provide adequate answers to recurring problems in land and water resources management, nowadays the use of physically based models is widespread. The reliability of the responses of this kind of model is closely linked to the precision with which model parameters are determined, such as soil hydraulic characteristics and meteorological variables. In this work, we set up a complete station for the monitoring of both meteorological and soil variables, as well as a soil hydraulic characterization. The experimental site shows vertic characteristics and is in Guardia Perticara, Basilicata region, Italy.

Hydrometeorological monitoring for water balance determination at plot scale

To provide adequate answers to recurring problems in land and water resources management, nowadays the use of physically based models is widespread. The reliability of the responses of this kind of model is closely linked to the precision with which model parameters are determined, such as soil hydraulic characteristics and meteorological variables. In this work, we set up a complete station for the monitoring of both meteorological and soil variables, as well as a soil hydraulic characterization. The experimental site shows vertic characteristics and is in Guardia Perticara, Basilicata region, Italy.