scholarly journals An Optimization-Evaluation Agricultural Water Planning Approach Based on Interval Linear Fractional Bi-Level Programming and IAHP-TOPSIS

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1094
Author(s):  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Hua Zhu ◽  
Ping Guo

In this study, an interval linear fractional bi-level programming (ILFBP) model was developed for managing irrigation-water resources under uncertainty. The ILFBP can fully address system fairness, uncertainties, and the leader–follower relationship of decision makers in the optimization process, which can better reflect the complexity of real decision-making process and help formulate reasonable water policies. An interactive fuzzy coordination algorithm based on satisfaction degree was introduced to solve the ILFBP model. In order to evaluate the applicability of optimization schemes, the interval analytic hierarchy process (IAHP) and the interval technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method were integrated as IAHP-TOPSIS. To verify its validity, the developed optimization-evaluation framework was applied to an irrigation water management case study in the middle reaches of the Shiyang River Basin, located in the northwest China. The ILFBP model results show that the total water allocation is [6.73, 7.37] × 108 m3, saving nearly 0.9 × 108 m3 more than the current situation. The benefit per unit of water is [2.38, 2.95] yuan/m3, nearly 0.4 yuan/m3 more than the status quo, and the Gini coefficient is within a reasonable range of [0.35, 0.38]. The ILFBP model can well balance economic benefits and system fairness. Through the evaluation bases on IAHP-TOPSIS, the results of ILFBP show better water allocation effects and applicability than the other two models in this study area. Furthermore, due to various characteristics such as geographical location, population and area, there are three irrigation districts, Xiying, Donghe, and Qinghe, showing higher importance than others when considering regional water allocation. These findings can provide useful information for limited water resource managers and help decision makers determine effective alternatives of water resource planning under uncertainty.

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zehao Yan ◽  
Mo Li

Agricultural water scarcity is a global problem and this reinforces the need for optimal allocation of irrigation water resources. However, decision makers are challenged by the complexity of fluctuating stream condition and irrigation quota as well as the dynamic changes of the field water cycle process, which make optimal allocation more complex. A two-stage chance-constrained programming model with random parameters in the left- and right-hand sides of constraints considering field water cycle process has been developed for agricultural irrigation water allocation. The model is capable of generating reasonable irrigation allocation strategies considering water transformation among crop evapotranspiration, precipitation, irrigation, soil water content, and deep percolation. Moreover, it can deal with randomness in both the right-hand side and the left-hand side of constraints to generate schemes under different flow levels and constraint-violation risk levels, which are informative for decision makers. The Yingke irrigation district in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin, northwest China, was used to test the developed model. Tradeoffs among different crops in different time periods under different flow levels, and dynamic changes of soil moisture and deep percolation were analyzed. Scenarios with different violating probabilities were conducted to gain insight into the sensitivity of irrigation water allocation strategies on water supply and irrigation quota. The performed analysis indicated that the proposed model can efficiently optimize agricultural irrigation water for an irrigation district with water scarcity in a stochastic environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1120-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liming Yao ◽  
Zhongwen Xu ◽  
Mahdi Moudi ◽  
Zongmin Li

Abstract Water resource scarcity increases societal instability, poverty, and economic recession. Therefore, sound water resource management is vital to alleviating water crises in the agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors. Southeast Iran, which currently lacks good water resource management, is experiencing a severe water crisis. Taking Zabol and Zahedan as examples, this paper seeks to optimize water allocation between the two cities using a dynamic bi-level programming model; the upper level objective minimizes the deviation between water demand and supply, and the lower level objective maximizes the net economic benefits in each sector. A sensitivity analysis is then conducted on the different sources of available water to provide more information on water allocation over time.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhong Shuai ◽  
Liming Yao

Abstract Optimal, rational water resource allocation can go some way to overcoming water deficiencies; however, its achievement is complex due to conflicting hierarchies and uncertainties, such as water availability (WA) and water demand (WD). This study developed a robust water withdrawal scheme for arid and semi-arid regions that balanced the trade-offs between the sub-areas and water use participants, ensured sustainable regional system development, and guaranteed robust solutions for future uncertainties. A bi-level affinely adjustable robust counterpart (AARC) programming framework was developed, in which the regional authority as the leader allocates water to the sub-areas to maximize the intra- and intergenerational equity, and the sub-areas as the followers allocate water to their respective water departments to maximize their economic benefits and minimize water shortages. This method used affine functions between the decision variables (water allocation amount) and the uncertain parameters (WA, WD) to deal with the computationally intractable (NP-hard) robust counterpart for the multi-period water resources management. To illustrate the applicability and feasibility of this framework, a case study from Neijiang, China, is given. This model can assist regional authorities develop more robust water resource allocation solutions for multi-period planning responses to uncertain water deficiencies.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 671
Author(s):  
Xiaoying Zhou ◽  
Feier Wang ◽  
Kuan Huang ◽  
Huichun Zhang ◽  
Jie Yu ◽  
...  

Predicting and allocating water resources have become important tasks in water resource management. System dynamics and optimal planning models are widely applied to solve individual problems, but are seldom combined in studies. In this work, we developed a framework involving a system dynamics-multiple objective optimization (SD-MOO) model, which integrated the functions of simulation, policy control, and water allocation, and applied it to a case study of water management in Jiaxing, China to demonstrate the modeling. The predicted results of the case study showed that water shortage would not occur at a high-inflow level during 2018–2035 but would appear at mid- and low-inflow levels in 2025 and 2022, respectively. After we made dynamic adjustments to water use efficiency, economic growth, population growth, and water resource utilization, the predicted water shortage rates decreased by approximately 69–70% at the mid- and low-inflow levels in 2025 and 2035 compared to the scenarios without any adjustment strategies. Water allocation schemes obtained from the “prediction + dynamic regulation + optimization” framework were competitive in terms of social, economic and environmental benefits and flexibly satisfied the water demands. The case study demonstrated that the SD-MOO model framework could be an effective tool in achieving sustainable water resource management.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1588
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Jiaying Li

Under the current administrative system (AS) in China, the water resources governor allocates limited water resources to several users to realize the utility of water resources, leading to a principal–agent problem. The governor (referred to as the principal and she) wishes to maximize water resource allocation efficiency, while each user (referred to as the agent and he) only wishes to maximize his own quota. In addition, the governor cannot know water demand information exactly since it is the water users’ private information. Hence, this paper builds an ex ante improved bankruptcy allocation rule and an ex post verification and reward mechanism to improve water allocation efficiency from the governor’s perspective. In this mechanism, the governor allocates water among users based on an improved bankruptcy rule before the water is used up, verifies users’ information by various approaches, and poses a negative reward to them if their information is found to be false after the water is used up. Then, this mechanism is applied to Huangbai River Basin. Research results show that the improved allocation rule could motivate users to report demand information more honestly, and ex post verification could motivate water users to further report their true information, which, as a result, could improve the water allocation efficiency. Furthermore, this mechanism could be applied to the allocation of other resources.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1446
Author(s):  
Min Wang ◽  
Xi Chen ◽  
Ayetiguli Sidike ◽  
Liangzhong Cao ◽  
Philippe DeMaeyer ◽  
...  

Water users in the Amudarya River Basin in Uzbekistan are suffering severe water use competition and uneven water allocation, which seriously threatens ecosystems, as shown, for example, in the well-known Aral Sea catastrophe. This study explores the optimized water allocation schemes in the study area at the provincial level under different incoming flow levels, based on the current water distribution quotas among riparian nations, which are usually ignored in related research. The optimization model of the inexact two-stage stochastic programming method is used, which is characterized by probability distributions and interval values. Results show that (1) water allocation is redistributed among five different sectors. Livestock, industrial, and municipality have the highest water allocation priority, and water competition mainly exists in the other two sectors of irrigation and ecology; (2) water allocation is redistributed among six different provinces, and allocated water only in Bukhara and Khorezm can satisfy the upper bound of water demand; (3) the ecological sector can receive a guaranteed water allocation of 8.237–12.354 km3; (4) under high incoming flow level, compared with the actual water distribution, the total allocated water of four sectors (except for ecology) is reduced by 3.706 km3 and total economic benefits are increased by USD 3.885B.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emalie Rosewarne ◽  
Michael Moore ◽  
Wai-Kwan Chislett ◽  
Alexandra Jones ◽  
Kathy Trieu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Public health advocacy strategies facilitate policy change by bringing key health issues to the forefront of public and political discourse, influencing decision-makers and public opinion, and increasing policy demand. The Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership (VSRP) was established in 2014 in response to inadequate government action to improve population diets in Australia. This study aimed to evaluate the success of the VSRP’s advocacy strategy in achieving policy change. Methods Documentation of VSRP activities and outputs were collected, and semi-structured interviews conducted as part of a comprehensive process evaluation. For this study, the Kotter Plus 10-step public health advocacy evaluation framework was used to guide data extraction, analysis, and synthesis. Results A sense of urgency for salt reduction was generated by producing evidence and outlining the potential impact of a state-based salt reduction programme. This enabled the creation of a coalition with diverse skills and expertise, which facilitated the development of an innovative and collaborative advocacy action plan. A clear change vision was established, but communication of the vision to decision-makers was lacking, which reduced the impact of the programme as decision-makers were not provided with a clear incentive for policy change. As a result, while programme outputs were achieved, these did not translate to achieving broader strategic goals during a limited-term intervention in a political climate unconcerned with salt. Conclusions The Kotter Plus 10-step framework was a useful tool for evaluating the success of the VSRP advocacy strategy. The framework enabled the identification of key strengths, including the creation of the guiding coalition, and areas where efforts could be improved in future similar strategies, such as effective communication within partnerships and to decision-makers, to better influence policy and improve public health impact.


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