Integrated Sizing of Water Storage and Conveyance

A methodology employing dynamic programming is presented for integrating the optimal design of water supply, treatment, and conveyance systems, where demands for water may vary over a year. The analysis begins with the water conveyance system so as to determine overall monthly water allocations for various possible discrete levels of annual firm yield from a proposed reservoir that maximize net benefits. An analysis is then conducted on the reservoir to determine the minimum required reservoir capacity for each discrete firm yield, given the previously computed water allocations for each level. Given the costs for each sizing, the size and design of the reservoir and conveyance system that maximizes total net benefits is easily found. This study used a generalized dynamic programming code called CSUDP. The algorithm was successfully applied to a portion of the upper Colorado River basin which includes four municipalities, several irrigation projects, and industrial development.