Coastal Groundwater Management by an Uncertainty-Based Parallel Decision Model
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
Seawater intrusion is a common problem in coastal aquifers and can be intensified by various factors, such as unplanned groundwater extraction. Hence, making appropriate decisions for coastal groundwater management is essential to prevent excessive seawater intrusion, although the uncertainties of this procedure can undermine the reliability of obtained results and consequently affect proposed decisions. To address such challenges, this study presents an uncertainty-based decision model based on a combined simulation-optimization framework and parallel processing technique. In this model, the SUTRA numerical simulation model is combined with an evolutionary algorithm of continuous ant colony optimization, while Monte Carlo simulation is used to consider the uncertainties in the permeability of porous media. Two sets of probabilistic management problems are formulated for maximizing groundwater extraction and controlling the seawater intrusion in a real case coastal aquifer of Ajabshir, Iran. The results indicate that a 46% increase in groundwater extraction is possible for a low-exploitation-stress period of the year. Moreover, using a parallelization technique with 15 threads, the computational time of the decision model is cut in half.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the support of the Iran Water Resources Management Company and Regional Water Companies of East and West Azerbaijan in supplying the required data for the real-word case study described in this paper. The authors wish to thank Mr. Reza Farhoudi-Hafdaran at Tarbiat Modares University for help in preparing the numerical simulation for the real-world case study.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 5, 2019
Accepted: Jan 10, 2020
Published online: Mar 28, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 28, 2020
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