Abstract
Uncertainty in the impacts of climate change and development on freshwater resources pose significant challenges for water resources management. Integrated and adaptive approaches to water resources management are a promising means of addressing uncertainty that afford flexibility in balancing multiple stakeholder objectives. However, guidance on designing such plans is lacking. In this study, we use multiobjective optimization to strategically incorporate green infrastructure (GI) into water resources management plans that maximize reductions in nutrient loads, minimize stormwater runoff, and minimize costs. Robust decision-making methods are applied to the resulting plan options to evaluate how optimized GI implementation varies under different possible future climates and to determine which solutions would be robust under a range of plausible future conditions. We demonstrate these coupled methods using a case study in southern Massachusetts to address water quality issues related to point and nonpoint source nutrients in a rapidly developing watershed.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online in accordance with funder data retention policies. The code is available at https://github.com/USEPA/Greenopt.
Acknowledgments
The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.
We thank the anonymous reviewers and EPA internal reviewers for their valuable feedback.
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 147 • Issue 6 • June 2021
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© 2021 Published by American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Apr 23, 2020
Accepted: Nov 20, 2020
Published online: Mar 23, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Aug 23, 2021
ASCE Technical Topics:
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- Engineering fundamentals
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