Determination of the Optimal Level of Water Releases from a Reservoir to Control Water Quality
Publication: Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
The increase of pollution loads and of the diversity of pollutants threatening water resources calls for sophisticated management of water resources. This paper shows that the thermal stratification of water in reservoirs and the variation of its density with reservoir depth make it possible to manage sudden water-pollution events by controlling water release as a function of lake depth to minimize effects associated with the release of polluted water from reservoirs. The best outlet level of a reservoir to release polluted water is selected in this paper using the technique for order performance by similarity of ideal solution (TOPSIS). The latter is a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) tool for managing water quality in reservoirs. The application of MCDM is illustrated with the management of reservoir releases to cope with the sudden spill of of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) into the Amirkabir reservoir (Iran). The CE-QUAL-W2 calibrated model is used to simulate the spreading of MTBE in the reservoir. Pollutant spreading is predicted under four seasonal pollution scenarios and one scenario considering all seasons simultaneously. This allows for the consideration of the effects of climatic and water demand conditions on reservoir water quality. This paper’s results show that the water should be released from the low-elevation gate in spring and winter and from the high-elevation gate in summer and autumn to optimally manage the sudden release of MTBE spills in the Amirkabir reservoir.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Ashofteh, P.-S., Bozorg Haddad, O., Akbari-Alashti, H., and Mariño, M. A. (2015a). “Determination of irrigation allocation policy under climate change by genetic programming.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 04014059.
Ashofteh, P.-S., Bozorg Haddad, O., and Loáiciga, H. A. (2015b). “Evaluation of climatic-change impacts on multi-objective reservoir operation with multiobjective genetic programming.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 04015030.
Ashofteh, P.-S., Bozorg Haddad, O., and Mariño, M. A. (2013b). “Scenario assessment of streamflow simulation and its transition probability in future periods under climate change.” Water Resour. Manage., 27(1), 255–274.
Ashofteh, P.-S., Bozorg Haddad, O., and Mariño, M. A. (2015c). “Risk analysis of water demand for agricultural crops under climate change.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 04014060.
Ashofteh, P.-S., Bozorg-Haddad, O., and Mariño, M. (2013a). “Climate change impact on reservoir performance indices in agricultural water supply.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 85–97.
Bonalumi, M., Anselmetti, F. S., Wüest, A., and Schmid, M. (2012). “Modeling of temperature and turbidity in a natural lake and a reservoir connected by pumped-storage operations.” Water Resour. Res., 48(8), W08508.
Bozorg Haddad, O., Ashofteh, P.-S., Ali-Hamzeh, M., and Mariño, M. A. (2015a). “Investigation of reservoir qualitative behavior resulting from sudden entry of biological pollutant.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 04015003.
Bozorg Haddad, O., Ashofteh, P.-S., and Mariño, M. A. (2015b). “Levee layouts and design optimization in protection of flood areas.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 04015004.
Bozorg Haddad, O., Ashofteh, P.-S., Rasoulzadeh-Gharibdousti, S., and Mariño, M. A. (2014). “Optimization model for design-operation of pumped-storage and hydropower systems.” J. Energy Eng., 04013016.
Cole, M. T., and Wells, A. S. (2006). “CE-QUAL-W2: A two-dimensional, laterally averaged, hydrodynamic and water quality model, version 3.5.” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
Elçi, Ş. (2008). “Effects of thermal stratification and mixing on reservoir water quality.” Limnology, 9(2), 135–142.
Etemad-Shahidi, A., Afshar, A., Alikia, H., and Moshfeghi, H. (2009). “Total dissolved solid modeling; Karkheh reservoir case example.” Int. J. Environ. Res., 3(4), 671–680.
Gelda, R. K., Owens, E. M., and Effler, S. W. (1998). “Calibration, verification, and an application of a two-dimensional hydrothermal model [CE-QUAL-W2(t)] for Cannonsville reservoir.” Lake Reservoir Manage., 14(2–3), 186–196.
Heald, P. C., Schladow, S. G., Reuter, J. E., and Allen, B. C. (2005). “Modeling MTBE and BTEX in lakes and reservoirs used for recreational boating.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 39(4), 1111–1118.
Hwang, C. L., and Yoon, K. (1981). Multiple attribute decision making methods and applications: A state-of the art survey, Springer, London.
Lev, B. (2001). Intangibles: Management, measurement and reporting, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC.
McCord, S. A., and Schladow, S. G. (1998). Transport and fate modeling of MTBE in lakes and reservoirs, Univ. of California, Davis, CA.
Nandalal, K. D. W., and Bogardi, J. J. (1995). “Reservoir management for improving river water quality.” Proc., Water Resources Management under Drought or Water Storage Conditions: Proc., EWRA 95 Symp., N. X. Tsiourtis, ed., A. A. Balkema, Brookfield, VT, 257–264.
Norton, G. E., and Bradford, A. (2009). “Comparison of two stream temperature models and evaluation of potential management alternatives for the speed river, southern Ontario.” J. Environ. Manage., 90(2), 866–878.
Rangel-Peraza, J. G., et al. (2012). “Modelling approach for characterizing thermal stratification and assessing water quality for a large tropical reservoir.” Lakes Reservoirs Res. Manage., 17(2), 119–129.
Saadatpour, M., and Afshar, A. (2013). “Multi objective simulation-optimization approach in pollution spill response management model in reservoir.” Water Resour. Manage., 27(6), 1851–1865.
Shokri, A., Bozorg Haddad, O., and Mariño, M. A. (2013). “Algorithm for increasing the speed of evolutionary optimization and its accuracy in multi-objective problems.” Water Resour. Manage., 27(7), 2231–2249.
Stocking, A. J., and Kavanaugh, M. C. (2000). “Modeling volatilization of MTBE from standing surface waters.” J. Environ. Eng., 1131–1136.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012). “Drinking water advisory: Consumer acceptability advice and health effects analysis on methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE).”, Office of Water, Washington, DC.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 20 • Issue 2 • April 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 19, 2014
Accepted: Jun 18, 2015
Published online: Aug 7, 2015
Discussion open until: Jan 7, 2016
Published in print: Apr 1, 2016
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.