Hydro-economic Simulation-Optimization Model for Optimal Design of Water Resources Development Projects and Policies in Helleh River Basin

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Civil engineering school, Iran university of science and technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This paper deals with developing a hydro-economic simulation-optimization model for optimal design of water resources development projects and policies of Helleh (Shapoor-Dalaki) River Basin, located at south of Iran, over a long-term planning horizon. We employ Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) coupled with a simulation model which is a combination of WEAP water allocation software and three computational modules for soil and water salt routing at basin scale, crop yield production and economic analysis. Finally we apply the developed simulation-optimization model to optimize infrastructural projects and measures, e.g. construction of dams and irrigation districts and utilization of modern technologies, and also operation policies, e.g. irrigation and leaching strategies, reservoir rule curves, and water allocation priorities. Model application results suggest construction of Choroom, Dalaki and Nargesi dams with normal water volumes equal to 43.5, 305.5 and 76.8 million cubic meters, respectively. In spite of economic efficiency of the optimal solution achieved (18% enhancement of net benefit), the associated economic value of water is reduced with respect to business-as-usual condition. Also optimal irrigation and leaching strategies lead to 35% reduction in total gross irrigation requirement under development condition.

Keywords

Main Subjects


Abgir CEC (2014) Updates of the comprehensive water plan of the country in the watershed of Helleh, Mand, Kel-Mehran, Bandar Abbas-Sadej and Baluchestan. Technical Report (In Persian)
ATP CEC (2016) Economic evaluation of Dalaki dam. Technical Report (In Persian)
Brath A, Montanari A and Toth E (2004) Analysis of the effects of different scenarios of historical data availability on the calibration of a spatially-distributed hydrological model. Journal of Hydrology 291(3-4):232-253
Blanco-Gutiérrez I, Varela-Ortega C and Purkey DR (2013) Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach. Journal of Environmental Management 128:144-160
Esteve P, Varela-Ortega C, Blanco-Gutiérrez I and Downing TE (2015) A hydro-economic model for the assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation in irrigated agriculture. Ecological Economics 120:49-58
Fraga CCS, Medellín-Azuara J and Marques GF (2017) Planning for infrastructure capacity expansion of urban water supply portfolios with an integrated simulation-optimization approach. Sustainable Cities and Society 29:247-256
Harou JJ, Pulido-Velazquez M, Rosenberg DE, Medellín-Azuara J, Lund JR and Howitt RE (2009) Hydro-economic models: Concepts, design, applications, and future prospects. Journal of Hydrology 375(3-4):627-643
Hum NNMF and Abdul-Talib S (2016) Modeling optimal water allocation by managing the demands in Selangor. ISFRAM 2015. Springer, p93–104
Nowrozi B (2015) Hydro-economic modeling for quantitative and qualitative management of surface water in Helleh River Basin. M.Sc. Thesis, School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (In Persian)
O’Connor DJ (1976) The concentration of dissolved solids and river flow. Water Resources Research 12(2):279-294
Reznik A, Feinerman E, Finkelshtain I, Kan I, Fisher F, Huber-Lee A and Joyce B (2016) The cost of covering costs: a nationwide model for water pricing. Water Economics and Policy 2(4):1650024
Tamavan CEC (2015) Study of economic evaluation of Choroom dam. Technical Report (In Persian)
Tamavan CEC (2014a) Study of the first and second phase of Shirin River development and economic evaluation of Nargesi dam. Technical Report (In Persian)
Tamavan CEC (2014b) Water resources planning of Chorom dam. Technical Report (In Persian)
Mahab GCEC (2010) Water resources planning of Raeis-Ali Delvari dam. Technical Report (In Persian)
Mohsenizadeh E, Shourian M (2017) Optimum water resources allocation planning at basin scale by integrating MODSIM and Cuckoo optimization algorithm. Iran Water Resources Research 13(4):1-16 (In Persian)
Vico G and Porporato A (2011) From rainfed agriculture to stress-avoidance irrigation: I. A generalized irrigation scheme with stochastic soil moisture. Advances in Water Resources 34(2):263–271
Yates D, Purkey D, Sieber J, Huber-Lee A and Galbraith H (2005) WEAP21-A demand-, priority-, and preference-driven water planning model: Part 2: aiding freshwater ecosystem service evaluation. Water International 30(4):501–512