Operating rules of an irrigation purposes reservoir using multi-objective optimization

A multi-objective optimization technique for the operation of an irrigation reservoir is presented in this paper. The study deals with two different objective functions (OF): the minimization of reservoir release deficit from the irrigation demand (OF1) and the maximization of net benefit by the demand sector (OF2). In the first step, monthly optimization of each individual objective was performed with a deterministic non-linear programming (NLP) algorithm, that gave the lower and upper bounds for the multi-objective analysis. In the second step, multi-objective optimization was performed through the Constraint method that operates by optimising the objective function OF1, while the other (OF2) was constrained to satisfy release strategies generated by the optimization. Non-dominated set of release strategies is generated by parametrically varying the bounds of the constraints obtained from the individual optimal solutions. In the third step, the interactive analytical Step method was applied to find the best compromise solution, between the two OFs, by minimizing the distance of each non-dominated solution to an ideal solution that represents the utopian optimum for both OF1 and OF2. Furthermore, the interactive approach allows to improve the performance of the reservoir in terms of compromise irrigation releases, by changing the OF values until the satisfaction of predetermined criteria fixed by the planners and decision makers. The proposed water allocation model was applied to the Pozzillo reservoir operation, that supplies the Catania Plain irrigation area (Eastern Sicily).