Optimum socio-environmental flows approach for reservoir operation strategy using many-objectives evolutionary...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Water Resource Management
• Computational Hydrology

Background:

• Water resource systems face complexity and high-dimension modeling challenges.
• Integrating environmental flow objectives (water quality, ecosystem) with social flow objectives (hydropower, water supply, agriculture) is difficult.
• Computational efficiency limits decision-making strategies in river basin management.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce a novel Optimum Social-Environmental Flows (OSEF) with Auto-Adaptive Constraints (AAC) approach.
• Develop a river basin management decision support tool to overcome computational challenges.
• Integrate socio-environmental objectives effectively for improved river basin management.

Main Methods:

• Developed the OSEF-AAC approach integrating socio-environmental objectives with convergence booster support.
• Modeled nine socio-environmental objectives and 396 decision variables for Iraq's Diyala river basin.
• Evaluated the approach's effectiveness using two non-environmental models and two inflow scenarios.

Main Results:

• The OSEF-AAC approach demonstrated effectiveness in managing complex water resource systems.
• The study highlighted the advantage of OSEF-AAC over other decision support alternatives.
• The approach showed potential to enhance revenues in river basin socio-environmental sectors.

Conclusions:

• The OSEF-AAC approach provides a viable solution for balancing competing water resource objectives.
• Improved river basin economic benefits are achievable through integrated socio-environmental management.
• Adoption of advanced land use and water exploitation policies is crucial for securing basin socio-environmental sectors.