Multicriteria Analysis to Select an Optimal Operating Option for a Water Grid
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 143, Issue 8
Abstract
Water supply systems are diversifying and expanding in response to climate pressures and population growth. However, these water grids present challenges for the water supply manager in identifying optimal operating options for the short term. This study demonstrates the final step in a framework to address these challenges, multicriteria analysis, using a case study based on the South East Queensland water grid. A shortlist of nine water grid operating options have been identified, which are optimal in terms of minimizing total operational cost, maximizing water security, and minimizing spills from reservoirs, over a 5-year period. This study assesses the performance of each of these nine operating options against a wider set of 18 criteria reflecting cost, supply reliability, environmental flow, water quality, reservoir spill, and water security concerns. The weighted summation multicriteria analysis technique is used to combine and rank performance of the nine operating options against the 18 criteria. An operating option is selected that performs best on average across the 18 criteria and four scenarios of preference weights. This operating option comprises a set of operating rules that can form the basis of a short-term optimal annual operating plan.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of Seqwater in providing input data for the simulation-optimization model. The authors also wish to acknowledge the assistance of anonymous reviewers in improving the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 143 • Issue 8 • August 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 4, 2016
Accepted: Jan 24, 2017
Published online: May 15, 2017
Published in print: Aug 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Oct 15, 2017
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