higgins-integratedmodelling-2011.pdf (8.63 MB)
Integrated modelling of cost-effective siting and operation of flow-control infrastructure for river ecosystem conservation
journal contribution
posted on 2011-05-17, 00:00 authored by A Higgins, Brett BryanBrett Bryan, I Overton, K Holland, Rebecca LesterRebecca Lester, D King, M Nolan, J ConnorWetland and floodplain ecosystems along many regulated rivers are highly stressed, primarily due to a lack of environmental flows of appropriate magnitude, frequency, duration, and timing to support ecological functions. In the absence of increased environmental flows, the ecological health of river ecosystems can be enhanced by the operation of existing and new flow-control infrastructure (weirs and regulators) to return more natural environmental flow regimes to specific areas. However, determining the optimal investment and operation strategies over time is a complex task due to several factors including the multiple environmental values attached to wetlands, spatial and temporal heterogeneity and dependencies, nonlinearity, and time-dependent decisions. This makes for a very large number of decision variables over a long planning horizon. The focus of this paper is the development of a nonlinear integer programming model that accommodates these complexities. The mathematical objective aims to return the natural flow regime of key components of river ecosystems in terms of flood timing, flood duration, and interflood period. We applied a 2-stage recursive heuristic using tabu search to solve the model and tested it on the entire South Australian River Murray floodplain. We conclude that modern meta-heuristics can be used to solve the very complex nonlinear problems with spatial and temporal dependencies typical of environmental flow allocation in regulated river ecosystems. The model has been used to inform the investment in, and operation of, flow-control infrastructure in the South Australian River Murray.
History
Journal
Water resources researchVolume
47Issue
5Pagination
1 - 14Publisher
American Geophysical UnionLocation
Washington, D. C.ISSN
0043-1397eISSN
1944-7973Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2011, American Geophysical UnionUsage metrics
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complex taskdecision variablesecological functionsecological healthenvironmental flowenvironmental flow regimeenvironmental valuesflood durationflood plainsintegrated modellingkey componentmeta heuristicsnatural flow regimenon-linear integer programmingnon-linearitynonlinear problemsoperation strategyoptimal investmentsplanning horizonsregulated riverriver ecosystemspatial and temporal heterogeneityScience & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicinePhysical SciencesEnvironmental SciencesLimnologyWater ResourcesEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyMarine & Freshwater BiologyENVIRONMENTAL FLOWSTABU SEARCHRESERVOIR MANAGEMENTECOLOGICAL RESPONSESWATEROPTIMIZATIONBIODIVERSITYRESTORATIONREGIMESRULES
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