Reservoir Operation and Water Allocation to Mitigate Drought Effects in Crops: A Multilevel Optimization Using the Drought Frequency Index
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 135, Issue 6
Abstract
The drought frequency index (DFI) is employed in this study as a drought indicator and as a trigger mechanism for multireservoir system operations during drought. The DFI characterizes droughts according to their duration and intensity, using a probabilistic criterion that takes into account the persistence of extreme low precipitation values. Performances with and without the DFI are evaluated, using reliability and resilience indices, for the Conchos river basin—a tributary of the Rio Grande/Bravo basin between United States and Mexico—through a multilevel nonlinear optimization procedure oriented to reduce water deficits to the United States and maximize net benefits for farmers in Mexican irrigation districts. Results show that the inclusion of the DFI improves the reliability of both reservoirs and water deliveries to users during periods of drought, which reflects an overall improvement of net benefits associated with crop production in Mexican irrigation districts.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by SAHRA (Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas) at University of Arizona under the STC Program of the National Science Foundation, Grant No. NSFEAR-9876800. The observations and suggestions made by anonymous reviewers greatly improved the final version of the paper. All contributions are gratefully appreciated.
References
Allen, R., Pereira, L., Raes, M., and Smith, M. (1998). “Crop evapotranspiration—Guidelines for computing crop water requirements.” FAO irrigation and drainage paper 56, FAO, Rome, Italy.
Bogardi, J., and Kundzewicz, Z. (2005). Risk, reliability, uncertainty, and robustness of water resources systems, International Hydrology Series, Cambridge University Press, USA.
Doorebos, J., and Kassam, A. (1979). “Yield response to water.” FAO irrigation and drainage paper 33, FAO, Rome, Italy.
Fowler, H. J., Kilsby, C. G., and O’Connell, P. E. (2003). “Modeling the impacts of climatic change and variability on the reliability, resilience and vulnerability of a water resource system.” Water Resour. Res., 39(8), SWC 10-1–SWC 10-11.
Gastelum, J., Valdes, J., and Stewart, S. (2009). “A decision support system to improve water resources management in the Conchos basin.” Water Resour. Manage., 1519–1548.
Gonzalez, J. (2005). “Stochastic characterization of the spatiotemporal occurrence of droughts.” Ph.D. thesis, Politechnique Univ. of Valencia, Spain (original in Spanish).
Gonzalez, J., and Valdes, J. (2006). “The new drought frequency index: Definition and comparative performance analysis.” Water Resour. Res., 42, W11421.
Hashimoto, T., Loucks, D. P., and Stedinger, J. R. (1982b). “Robustness of water resources systems.” Water Resour. Res., 18, 21–26.
Hashimoto, T., Stedinger, J. R., and Loucks, D. P. (1982a). “Reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability criteria for water resource system performance evaluation.” Water Resour. Res., 18, 14–20.
Heim, R., Jr. (2002). “A review of twentieth-century drought indices used in the United States.” Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83(8), 1149–1165.
Huang, W. -C., and Chou, C. -C. (2005). “Drought early warning system in reservoir operation: Theory and practice.” Water Resour. Res., 41, W11406.
Huang, W. -C., and Yuan, L. -C. (2004). “A drought early warning system on real-time multireservoir operations.” Water Resour. Res., 40, W06401.
Kelly, M. E. (2001). The Rio Conchos: A preliminary overview, Texas Center for Policy Studies, Tex.
Kelly, M. E., and Chapman, K. (2002). The dispute over shared waters of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, Texas Center for Policy Studies, Tex.
Kim, T. -W., and Valdés, J. B. (2003). “Nonlinear model for drought forecasting based on a conjunction of wavelet transforms and neural networks.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 8(6), 319–328.
Kim, T. -W., Valdés, J. B., and Aparicio, J. (2002). “Frequency and spatial characteristics of droughts in the Conchos River Basin, Mexico.” Water Int., 27(3), 420–430.
Kim, T. W., Valdés, J. B., and Yoo, C. (2003). “Nonparametric approach for estimating return periods of droughts in arid regions.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 8(5), 237–246.
Labadie, J. (2004). “Optimal operation of multireservoir systems: State-of-the-art review.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 130(2), 93–111.
Mannocchi, F., and Mecarelli, P. (1994). “Optimization analysis of deficit in irrigation systems.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 120(3), 484–503.
Mannocchi, F., and Todisco, F. (2006). “Optimal reservoir operations for irrigation using a three spatial scales approach.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 132(2), 130–142.
Prasad, A. S., Umamahesh, N., and Viswanath, G. (2006). “Optimal irrigation planning under water scarcity.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 132(3), 228–237.
Steinemann, A., and Cavalcanti, L. (2006). “Developing multiple indicators and triggers for drought plans.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 132(3), 164–174.
Témez, J. R. (1977). Mathematical model for rainfall-runoff, Asociación de Investigación Industrial Eléctrica-Asimel, Spain (in Spanish).
Tu, M. -Y., Hsu, N. -S., and Yeh, W. W.-G. (2003). “Optimization of reservoir management and operation with hedging rules.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 129(2), 86–97.
Vedula, S., and Mujumdar, P. (1992). “Optimal reservoir operation for irrigation of multiple crops.” Water Resour. Res., 28(1), 1–9.
Velasco, V. I., Aparicio, J., Velázquez, J., Valdés, J., and Kim, T. -W. (2004). “Evaluation of drought indices in Bravo/Grande River affluents basins.” Ingeniería Hidráulica en México, 19(3), 37–53 (in Spanish).
Vigerstol, K. (2003). “Drought management in Mexico’s Rio Bravo Basin.” MS thesis. Univ. of Washington, Wash.
Wagner, A., and Echeverria, J. (2000). “Dynamic model for prospective scenario analysis in the Conchos River Basin.” Technical Rep. Prepared for Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua, Mexico, (original in Spanish), ⟨http://www.congreso.us.es/ciberico/archivos_word/237b.doc⟩.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 6 • November 2009
Pages: 458 - 465
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 13, 2007
Accepted: Feb 9, 2009
Published online: Oct 15, 2009
Published in print: Nov 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.