Optimized water allocation in persistent severe climatic conditions: A novel metaheuristic approach

Abstract

With increasing global water tensions, the need for a comprehensive water management framework in persistent harsh conditions is crucial. A framework was designed to devise a comprehensive and detailed plan that can strike a balance between all water resources and demands. In contrast to previous studies, this framework can be adopted for long-lasting severe climatic conditions and suggests detailed cultivation patterns and reservoir management. The framework adopts a comprehensive, detailed, novel, multi-objective, and evolutionary-based approach for optimal water management during continuous extreme events in sectors including agriculture, industry, and the environment. Sustainability (ecological water demand and global warming potential), economic welfare, and equitability are allocation principles. This framework utilizes complex, metaheuristic algorithms that enable it to cope with big data and optimize complex systems with high precision. For the case study of the Karkheh basin, the results show that for a full recovery of the Hoor al-Azim wetland, the basin cannot bear the agricultural water demand, and such activities must be decreased drastically. It is also shown that a 10% increase of the agricultural net benefit will result in a 40% increase of the Gini coefficient.