Evaluating Water Transfer Projects Using Analytic Network Process (ANP)

This article introduces the analytic network process (ANP) as an effective tool for ranking water transfer projects. Water resources are the main basis of stable development around the world. Uneven water distribution and the shortage of water in some areas have caused water managers to consider interbasin water transfer as a solution to these water problems. Due to the many different conflict criteria in ranking water projects, ranking execution projects is one of the most critical and difficult tasks in water management. Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) is a collection of methodologies to compare, select, or rank multiple alternatives that typically involve incommensurate attributes. Many decision problems cannot be structured hierarchically because they involve the interaction and dependence of higher-level elements in a hierarchy on lower-level ones. This study deals with ranking water transfer projects as a MADM problem. Due to the fact that many of the criteria are related to each other, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is proposed for ranking projects. Ten water transfer projects in Karun River are investigated. Thirty influential factors are identified. They are classified under benefit, cost and risk criteria. The objective of this investigation is ranking alternatives with respect to different criteria in network form. Finally, sensitivity analysis is introduced.     

Watershed Management Technique to Control Sediment Yield in Agriculturally Dominated Areas

Abstract

Non-point source pollution is recognized internationally as a critical environmental problem. In Illinois, soil erosion from agricultural lands is the major source of such pollution. The erosion process, which has been accelerated by human activity, tends to reduce crop productivity and leads to subsequent problems from deposition on farmlands and in water bodies. Comprehensive watershed management, however, can be used to protect these natural resources. In this study, a discrete time optimal control methodology and computational model are developed for determining land use and management alternatives that minimize sediment yield from agriculturally-dominated watersheds. The solution methodology is based on an interface between a genetic algorithm and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Model analyses are performed on a farm field basis to allow capture of different, local stakeholder perspectives, and crop management alternatives are based on a three-year rotation pattern. The decision support tool is applied to the Big Creek watershed located in the Cache River basin of Southern Illinois. The application demonstrates that the methodology is a valuable tool in advancing comprehensive watershed management. The study represents part of an ongoing research effort to develop an even more comprehensive decision support tool that uses multi-criteria evaluation to address social, economic, and hydrologic issues for integrative watershed management.     

A Multicriteria Group Decision Model to Support Watershed Committees in Brazil

The involvement of multiple decision makers in water resources management can be very complex, involving the possibilities of conflicts amongst the stakeholders and the influence of powerful members over the preference of others. The inherent characteristic of decisions also increases this complexity due to many alternatives being involved and there being multiple criteria. Some of these criteria conflict with each other and the consequences of which will have great impact on those involved and on third parties. Therefore, a group decision support system model based on multicriteria analysis can be a powerful tool to support this kind of management. This study presents a tool to support the committee responsible for the management of the watersheds in Brazil in order to promote decentralization and the participation of all involved in the water resources management. The tool provides a ranking of alternatives for the environmental recuperation of the watershed through the use of the multicriteria method PROMETHEE II. For each decision maker, the alternatives were ranked and then the individual rankings were combined into a global ranking which contained the preferences of the whole group.     

Selecting Agricultural Best Management Practices for Water Conservation and Quality Improvements Using Atanassov’s Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets

Improper agricultural practices can affect ground water through leaching, surface water through runoff, algae infestations, deforestation, and air quality through burning operations and ammonia emissions. These effects may be mitigated through the institution of best management practices. The utility of best management practices (BMPs) is recognized and being actively promoted by agricultural agencies; however, identifying a set of mandatory BMPs is inappropriate given variations between climactic, demographic and geographic regions as well as differences in farming practices. In this study, a multi-criteria decision making model based on Attanassov’s Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set (A-IFS) theory is introduced and its utility to rank agricultural best management practices is illustrated using a case-study from South Texas. Implementation of the A-IFS MCDM method to the South Texas region resulted in “irrigation scheduling” being ranked as the most preferred alternative, while “brush control/management” was the least preferred. The A-IFS MCDM approach was particularly suitable for prioritizing and ranking agricultural best management practices because decision makers often tend to have both likes and dislikes with regards to specific BMPs and for a given evaluation attribute. Not only does the A-IFS MCDM method provide a single composite score to rank the BMP alternatives, but the output of the A-IFS MCDM method also includes upper and lower bounds that help identify the uncertainties in the decision making process.     

An Objective Method to Prioritize Socio‐Environmental Water Management Tradeoffs Using Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis

Rivers provide many social and environmental services that benefit humanity. A critical role of water mangers is to prioritize water allocation options that trade off socio‐economic and hydro‐ecological benefits in rivers. Methods for multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) provide a structured and systematic manner for researchers to aid in this process. In this paper, we describe a new MCDA method that prioritizes large multi‐dimensional sets of tradeoffs to support well‐informed water management in rivers. The method was developed based on an environmental flows planning study in the Goulburn‐Broken River catchment, Victoria, Australia. A combined simulation and heuristic optimization procedure was previously integrated into a hydrological catchment network model. That process resulted in a large set of viable daily water allocation schedules that traded off long‐term irrigation and hydro‐ecological benefits at the catchment outlet. We provided new guidance procedures to identify priority tradeoffs that can be used in stakeholder deliberations and catchment decision‐making. Our MCDA method included combined multi‐dimensional ordination and cluster analysis to spread the water allocation alternatives onto a two‐dimensional plane to discover alternatives with similar criteria tradeoffs. A geometric distance‐based method was performed on the full set of alternatives and on the identified clusters to rank the alternatives in accordance with minimizing the distance of the alternatives to an ideal but non‐feasible reference point in multi‐dimensional space. This method complements the use of elicitation procedures when water manager or other stakeholder interaction is not an option or when objectivity is desired. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prioritizing Long-term Watershed Management Strategies Using Group Decision Analysis

There is a growing consensus that an effective way of enhancing long-term water resources management and environmental sustainability is through locally based planning at the watershed scale. Managing watershed resources for particular uses requires interactive dialogue among all stakeholders who have different objectives. Therefore, the resolution of inter-group conflict should be an acknowledged task of the planning process. In this paper, an integrated framework for prioritizing watershed management strategies is proposed. A case study is employed to highlight the challenges of using group decision analysis in strategic planning and to illustrate the interaction between different stakeholders on watershed issues. In particular, two group decision-making approaches are used to assess and analyse different stakeholders' preferences for various strategies and alternatives. Professional experts, government agencies and community leaders constitute the different parties included in the framework. The main focus is on the application of group decision analysis in the long-term watershed planning process. The results of the overall preference analysis show that water resources development is the most important strategy followed by agricultural and range management.     

A Compromise Ratio Method with an Application to Water Resources Management: An Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set

Water resources management can be regarded as an iterative process of general decision making considering the applications and modifications of waters and related lands within a geographic region. This process helps decision makers to balance their diverse requirements and applications of water as an environmental resource, and to recognize how their activities can have impacts on the long-term sustainability. This paper introduces a new compromise ratio method based on Atanassov’s intuitionistic fuzzy sets under multiple criteria in real-life situations. Atanassov’s intuitionistic fuzzy weighted averaging (AIFWA) operator is applied to aggregate individual judgments of the decision makers to rate the relative importance of the selected criteria and potential alternatives. Then a new Atanassov’s intuitionistic fuzzy ranking index is proposed to analyze the potential alternatives. Finally, the performance of the proposed fuzzy decision-making method is illustrated to a real water resources management problem from the recent literature. Computational results demonstrate that the presented method can be utilized in a large-scale multi-level assessment process to assist the decision makers the optimal solution among the potential alternatives with multiple conflicting and compromising criteria.     

SWMM模型模拟雨洪原理剖析及应用建议

通过对SWMM模型结构和参数的剖析,证明其对城市雨洪形成过程的描述是符合迄今为止人们对城市产汇流规律的认知的。采用的产流分析方法以水文学为基础,汇流分析方法以水力学为基础,其物理概念清晰。包含的参数大多具有几何意义或物理意义,但有些参数之间存在互补性或相依性,这就要求在率定这些参数时应设法减少"异参同效"的影响。汇水区出口的雨洪过程的复合采用同时刻叠加的方法,表明来自不同部分洪水的相互干扰是被忽略的。     

SWMM模型河道及明满流模拟能力分析研究

SWMM模型是当前国内外使用最为广泛的城市雨洪模型,对其模拟能力进行研究具有重要意义。在简要介绍SWMM模型的基础上,对模型处理城区河道和管道明满流等方面的能力进行了研究和分析。通过将SWMM模型模拟城区河道的结果与通用一维河网模型进行对比,对SWMM模型在处理和概化城区河道时存在的问题进行了分析,并论证了采用SWMM模型处理城区河道的可行性。采用具有复杂流态的经典环状排水管网算例对SWMM模型处理明满流的能力以及管道概化策略进行了研究和分析。研究结果表明:SWMM模型在保证合适的断面间距的情况下完全能够应用于城区河道水流计算,模拟结果与一般河网模型差别较小,同时SWMM模型具备模拟一维明满流的能力,在管道较长时,适当增加中间节点,可以在一度程度上改善模拟效果。     

基于SWMM的城市雨洪模型模拟研究——以广东东莞市东城牛山汇水片区为例

为研究城市雨洪规律及城市化对雨洪的影响,指导城市防洪排涝,以SWMM为研究工具,东莞市东城牛山汇水片区为研究对象,经过汇水子流域划分、管网系统概化、参数设置调试等步骤构建了研究区域的城市雨洪模型,并应用所构建的模型对不同降雨重现期、不同城市化程度设计情境进行了模拟研究。结果显示,所构建模型可以对城市雨洪过程进行全程动态模拟;模拟发现随着重现期的增加,径流总量和洪峰流量都明显增加,且增幅逐渐减小;随着城市化的发展,降雨入渗量减少,径流量和洪峰流量增大,径流系数不断增高,洪涝灾害的风险升高,且短重现期的降雨条件下影响更明显。     

Urban total phosphorus loads to the St. Clair-Detroit River System

The St. Clair-Detroit River System watershed is a large, binational watershed draining into the connecting channel between lakes Huron and Erie. In addition to extensive agricultural lands, it contains large urban areas that discharge phosphorus from point source facilities, runoff of impervious surfaces, and overflows of combined sewers. To help guide actions to reduce phosphorus input to Lake Erie, we analyzed the spatial and temporal dynamics of loads from the three largest urban areas in the watershed (southeast Michigan; Windsor, Ontario; and London, Ontario), and used a previously calibrated storm water management model (SWMM) to explore options for reducing loads around metro Detroit. Point sources in these three urban areas contribute, on average, 81% of the total urban load and 19% of the Detroit River’s total phosphorus (TP) load to Lake Erie, while combined sewer overflows and runoff both contribute about 10% each to the urban load and about 2.5% each to the Detroit River’s load to Lake Erie. Most of the urban load (56%) comes from a single point source, the wastewater treatment facility in Detroit; however, TP loads from that facility have decreased by about 51% since 2008 due to improvements in wastewater treatment. Model simulations suggest that increasing pervious land area or implementing green infrastructure could help reduce combined sewer overflows in certain upper portions of the metro Detroit sewer system, but reductions were much less expressed for wet-weather discharge from the system.     

SWMM模型在洪水影响评价中的应用与分析

北京市试行建设项目“水影响评价”制度,其中“洪水影响评价”范围和内容改变较大．传统水文模型、经验公式存在诸多不适用性,探讨了城市雨洪管理模型在洪水影响评价中的应用。基于SWMM模型,模拟北京市某小流域在不同频率设计暴雨下的洪水过程．并采用纳西经验公式计算结果进行对比,验证了SWMM模型在该区域具有较好的适用性。在此基础上．探讨SWMM模型在洪水影响评价中的应用。研究结果表明,SWMM模型可以很好地反映出城市地区的产汇流特征．可以更突出地反映建设项目雨水排除、内涝等方面的特性与问题,为建设项目洪水影响评价提供可靠的技术依据。     

Hypsometric Integral Estimation Methods and its Relevance on Erosion Status of North-Western Lesser Himalayan Watersheds

Assessment of erosion status of a watershed is an essential prerequisite of integrated watershed management. This not only assists in chalking out suitable soil and water conservation measures to arrest erosion and conserve water but also helps in devising best management practices to enhance biomass production in watersheds. The geologic stages of development and erosion proneness of the watersheds are quantified by hypsometric integral. The estimation of hypsometric integral is carried out from the graphical plot of the measured contour elevation and encompassed area and by using empirical formulae. In this study, efforts were made to estimate the hypsometric integral values of the Sainj and Tirthan watersheds and their sub watersheds in the Lesser Himalayas using four different techniques, and to compare the procedural techniques of its estimation and relevance on erosion status. It was revealed that the hypsometric integral calculated by elevation–relief ratio method was accurate, less cumbersome and easy to calculate within GIS environment. Also comparison of these hypsometric integral values revealed that the Sainj watershed (0.51) was more prone to erosion than the Tirthan watershed (0.41). Further, the validation of these results with the recorded sediment yield data of 24 years (1981–2004) corroborated that the average annual sediment yield during this period for Sainj watershed (0.53 Mt) was more than that of the Tirthan watershed (0.3 Mt). Thus, the hypsometric integral value can be used as an estimator of erosion status of watersheds leading to watershed prioritization for taking up soil and water conservation measures in watershed systems.     

Fuzzy TOPSIS Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Applied to Karun Reservoirs System

Water resource systems, with an abundance of project purposes and resource values, are subject to conflicting policy, planning, and management decisions. Multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) provide a framework to help water managers identify critical issues, attach relative priorities to those issues, select best compromise alternatives, and facilitate communication to gain general acceptance. This paper addresses a method that incorporates several system factors/components within a general framework for providing a holistic analysis of the problems and comprehensive evaluation of the related mitigation/adaptation measures and policy responses. The method accounts for uncertainties in both the quantification and importance of objectives in the ranking process. The proposed fuzzy multi-criteria decision making process uses the well known Technique for Order Preference by Similarity of Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method in both deterministic and uncertain environments. The performance of the proposed approach to a real water resource management problem in Iran is illustrated. Results show that the model may be used in a large-scale multi-level assessment process. Ranks of the alternatives are presented using deterministic and fuzzy based models.     

Flood Vulnerability Analysis by Fuzzy Spatial Multi Criteria Decision Making

Prioritization the sub-basins available in a basin to flood vulnerability analysis can be discussed in the form of a spatial multi criteria decision making (SMCDM) problem. In this research a fuzzy planning support system based on the spatial analysis using tow multi criteria decision making methods, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and TOPSIS (Technique for order-preference by similarity to ideal solution) is used. AHP method is used to determine the structure of decision making process and to estimate criteria weights and TOPSIS model is used to rank the sub-basins of Tehran urban basin as a study area regarding the flood vulnerable areas. Also in order to perform spatial analysis for decision-making process, a developed toolbox is used within the Geographic Information System (GIS). In this research a model is presented in which some vague concepts such as weight of decision making criteria are expressed in the form of linguistic variables to be converted to triangular fuzzy numbers. Finally, the sensitivity of model was analyzed by changing the weights of decision making criteria and providing of ranking scenarios. The results show the optimum alternatives for mitigation flood vulnerability in the study area.

     

Cost–Effectiveness Analysis of Water Management Measures in Two River Basins of Jordan and Lebanon

Chekka Bay area and Amman Zarqa Basin are two complex river basins in northern Lebanon and northern Jordan respectively. Both regions are faced with growing populations, urban development and land-use changes. They also both suffer from water-resource scarcity and contrasted seasons that threaten the perennity of sufficient water supply. Decision makers may have several water-management measures in response to the issue of water deficiency in their regions, but they need simple methods and criteria for ranking the alternatives with respect to their economical efficiency. In this paper, the Cost–Effectiveness Analysis method is used for supporting decisions to optimally combine water management measures at the river basin scale. Hydrologic and socio-economic data are used for assessing the future water balance and determine the sustainable management objectives. Both supply- and demand-side measures are investigated and compared. The analysis is based on two basic metrics to assess cost–effectiveness ratios: the average annualized and the marginal (or incremental) unit cost. The results show that the cost–effectiveness ranking of alternative measures strongly depends on the selected metric. The average annualized unit cost systematically favours large scaled water measures with high costs while the average incremental unit cost facilitates the selection of smaller and costless measures reflecting the time preference for water supply.     

A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Model Based on Weighted Borda Scoring Method for Watershed Ecological Risk Management: a Case Study of Three Gorges Reservoir Area of China

In watershed ecological risk management, a series of alternatives will be analyzed in terms of multiple complex criteria, and different stakeholders with conflicting risk attitudes will be involved, which means that ecological risk management decision-making is a process surrounded by a wide range of uncertainties derived from scarcity of data, lack of knowledge, deficiency of assumptions and lexical vagueness. Based on modified Borda scoring method, this paper discusses how to apply a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making (FMCGDM) model into such a process. Then, a two-stage, 12-step MCDM methodology is proposed to obtain the optimal alternative decided by multiple decision-makers (DMs) from a given alternatives set. Firstly, all DMs make their own independent choice respectively, then, all the independent conclusions are integrated by using their subjective/objective weights. A modified Borda method is followed to rate and rank the weighted alternatives; in which the one with the highest score will be selected as the final preferable option. This model is demonstrated to be applicable and reliable by an application in the ecological risk decision making process of Three Gorges Reservoir area located in the upper reaches of Yangtze River in China. Of course, this method can also be applied in other research fields of environmental management.     

SWMM原理解析与应用展望

暴雨径流管理模型(SWMM)已成为目前在城市排水管网设计、城市雨洪模拟、城市水污染模拟及城市低影响开发(low impact development,LID)模拟等方面研究与应用中使用最为广泛的一款模型。剖析SWMM的基本原理,分析其研究现状,展望其发展前景,深入分析SWMM的产流、汇流、管网水动力学模拟、水质模拟等模型机理。基于文献调研和系统分析指出,SWMM的优点是具有较完备的管网水流、LID和水质模拟功能,软件界面友好易于操作,模型开源易于实现二次开发;缺点是未实现立体化水流模拟,未实现与GIS紧密耦合,地表产流模拟过于简化,无法模拟地表二维淹没和城市社会水循环;未来应针对其不足改进和完善相关模块,拓展其应用领域。研究成果有助于不同学科与行业的研究者更加全面地认识和理解SWMM,为SWMM的研究及在海绵城市建设中的运用提供了科学参考。     

Effect of Utility Function Curvature of Young’s Bargaining Method on the Design of WDNs

The optimal design of a water distribution network is a simulation-optimization task that should consider conflicts between different groups of stakeholders directly or indirectly. Investors and consumers are two groups of stakeholders with conflicting goals. Young’s bargaining method is a decision tool based on game theory that can help decision-makers to select one of the design alternatives by considering utilities of stakeholders. In this paper, the optimal design of two benchmark network problems (Two-loop and Hanoi networks) is considered with minimization of design cost and maximization of system efficiency, with respect to increasing hydraulic pressure. In this regard, decision alternatives are first determined by using a multi-objective, fast, messy genetic algorithm (MOFMGA). Young’s bargaining method is then applied with different combinations of utility functions of stakeholders. Results show that the use of the same utility functions for both stakeholders improves 63.23% and 24.47% of investor goals and 79.08% and 45.69% of consumer goals compared to the worst possible alternatives in the Two-loop and Hanoi networks, respectively. Moreover, both investor and consumer goals improve 6.19% and 7.14% in the Two-loop and 22.73% and 6.07% in the Hanoi network using a more concave utility function whose emphasis is on stakeholder utility, respectively.     

Integrated watershed management in Michigan: Challenges and proposed solutions

Michigan's current water management system is highly decentralized and based more on jurisdictional than watershed boundaries. There is both environmental and economic justification to examine alternate water resource management approaches given the current system's potential for inefficiency and redundancy. Our research addresses a central question: How might an integrated watershed governance system be applied in Michigan, where jurisdictional authority and political will are fragmented both horizontally across agencies and vertically across scales? We identify the key challenges facing Michigan's current approach to managing water resources and then describe two alternatives, referred to as Integrated Watershed Commissions (IWCs), which would coordinate water resource management and decision making on a watershed basis. The first alternative represents a relatively radical departure from the state's current structure, an “unconstrained” vision for comprehensive watershed management, which is not bound by the state's present political and management limitations. The second alternative, a more conservative or “constrained” vision for watershed coordination, operates primarily within Michigan's existing governance structures, and therefore includes mostly incremental change. For each alternative, we propose watershed boundaries and management structures, and discuss possible benefits and caveats. We also identify plausible next steps that can be taken in the near future, short of IWC implementation, that may catalyze water management reform and enhance coordination and collaboration in managing water resources in Michigan.