Experimenting with Water Supply Planning Objectives Using the Eldorado Utility Planning Model Multireservoir Testbed
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 144, Issue 8
Abstract
This paper introduces a generic multireservoir planning testbed called the Eldorado Utility Planning Model (EUPM). The purpose of the EUPM is to facilitate experimentation with advanced water supply planning tools and techniques using a complex system that is not subject to the sensitivities or paradigms of real-world case study models. The model centers on a hypothetical Colorado utility and incorporates the regional context of the western United States, e.g., competition between water users and the spatial and temporal complexities that impact water availability. The benefits of the EUPM are demonstrated through an experimental multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) optimization problem formulation designed to generate informative tradeoffs without the use of uncertain estimates of monetary costs. Incorporating two performance measures—minimization of new storage and of new supply—into the set of long-term planning objectives produces a suite of planning alternatives that can facilitate the application of human judgment to broader planning policy discussions, including the implications that a portfolio has on total plan cost.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through their Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP), Grant No. NA14OAR4310251. We would like to thank the following water supply agencies for contributing their time and expertise to this study: City of Aurora, City of Boulder, Colorado Springs Utilities, Denver Water, City of Fort Collins, and Northern Water. We would also like to thank the staff and researchers at the Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) for their contributions to this effort. Finally, we thank our reviewers for their valuable feedback and suggestions. The Eldorado Utility Planning Model and supporting data and documentation can be downloaded at: https://github.com/rebsmith/Eldorado-Utility-Planning-Model.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 144 • Issue 8 • August 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 4, 2017
Accepted: Feb 8, 2018
Published online: Jun 5, 2018
Published in print: Aug 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Nov 5, 2018
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