Long-term resilience in wastewater management: Optimizing treated wastewater allocation with a dynamic multi-agent...

Water scarcity poses a significant challenge to sustainable development, necessitating innovative approaches to manage limited resources efficiently. Effective water resource management involves not just the conservation and distribution of freshwater supplies but also the strategic reuse of treated wastewater (TWW). This study proposes a novel approach for the optimal allocation of treated wastewater among three key sectors (user agents): agriculture, industry, and urban green space. Recognizing the intricate interplays among these sectors, System Dynamics (SD) and Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) were integrated in a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) to capture the interactions and feedback mechanisms inherent within treated wastewater allocation systems. The Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) serves as the optimization tool, enabling the identification of optimal allocation strategies across various management scenarios over a 25-year simulation period. Our research navigates the complexities of long-term resource management, accounting for each sector's evolving its objectives and guidelines along the whole system objectives and strategies. The outcomes demonstrate how treated wastewater can be effectively distributed to support economic and social equity -as the system objectives-while supporting agricultural and industrial growth and enhancing efficiency and social well-being -reflecting individual agent objectives-within the CAS framework. The research explores four distinct management scenarios, each prioritizing different sectors to address water resource management challenges. Notably, all four scenarios align with the strategies required by the ruler (government), providing strategic guidance to water resource managers for decision-making. The simulation results reveal a scenario where all sectors' demands are met, with Scenario 4 emerging as the most effective. Scenario 4 aligned with the objectives and guidelines of each sector, demonstrating significant improvements in the CY (Agriculture agent index; increased from 0.2 to 0.68), IGI (Industry agent index; increased from 1 to 1.63), and GAI (Urban Green Space agent index; increased from 1 to 1.23) indices over the 25-year simulation period. By providing a strategic blueprint for policymakers and stakeholders, this study contributes significantly to the discourse on sustainable water resource management, presenting a replicable model for similar contexts globally, where judicious allocation of treated wastewater is paramount for achieving harmony between human activity and ecological preservation.