Reliability, Resiliency, Robustness, and Vulnerability Criteria for Water Resource Systems

Three criteria for evaluating the possible performance of water resource systems are discussed. These measures describe how likely a system is to fail (reliability), how quickly it recovers from failure (resiliency), and how severe the consequences of failure may be (vulnerability). These criteria can be used to assist in the evaluation and selection of alternative design and operating policies for a wide variety of water resource projects. The performance of a water supply reservoir with a variety of operating policies illustrates their use. When water resource investments are made there is little assurance that the predicted performance will coincide with the actual performance. Robustness is proposed as a measure of the likelihood that the actual cost of a proposed project will not exceed some fraction of the minimum possible cost of a system designed for the actual conditions that occur in the future. The robustness criterion is illustrated by its application to the planning of water supply systems in southwestern Sweden

Reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability criteria for water resource system performance evaluation

Three criteria for evaluating the possible performance of water resource systems are discussed. These measures describe how likely a system is to fail (reliability), how quickly it recovers from failure (resiliency), and how severe the consequences of failure may be (vulnerability). These criteria can be used to assist in the evaluation and selection of alternative design and operating policies for a wide variety of water resource projects. The performance of a water supply reservoir with a variety of operating policies illustrates their use

Intelligent decision support system based geo-information technology and spatial planning for sustainable water management in Flanders, Belgium

The paper outlines the main features of an intelligent decision support system based on existing and planned tools for optimising water management and flood risk reduction. Up to now, flood risk is increasing and environmental degradation is continuing; this requires developing robotic algorithms that can provide a degree of functionality for spatial representation and flexibility suitable for creating real-time solutions that maximize the urban flood protection measures. Moreover, the volume of data collected is growing rapidly and sophisticated means to efficiently optimise the data are essential. There is a need to develop a shared information system for flood management which will promote model and systems integration, monitoring, and decision making in strategic planning and emergency situations. This advanced area of research is a promising direction for producing an effective time-efficient solution to flood risk reduction where other methods failed. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to bring together innovative methods in the field of artificial intelligence, geo-information technology and spatial and environmental planning to achieve more effective water management and flood risk reduction in Flanders

Random walk forecast of urban water in Iran under uncertainty

There are two significant reasons for the uncertainties of water demand. On one hand, an evolving technological world is plagued with accelerated change in lifestyles and consumption patterns; and on the other hand, intensifying climate change. Therefore, with an uncertain future, what enables policymakers to define the state of water resources, which are affected by withdrawals and demands? Through a case study based on thirteen years of observation data in the Zayandeh Rud River basin in Isfahan province located in Iran, this paper forecasts a wide range of urban water demand possibilities in order to create a portfolio of plans which could be utilized by different water managers. A comparison and contrast of two existing methods are discussed, demonstrating the Random Walk Methodology, which will be referred to as the â On uncertainty pathâ , because it takes the uncertainties into account and can be recommended to managers. This On Uncertainty Path is composed of both dynamic forecasting method and system simulation. The outcomes show the advantage of such methods particularly for places that climate change will aggravate their water scarcity, such as Iran

Development of operating rules for a complex multireservoir system by coupling genetic algorithms and network optimization

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Hydrological Sciences Journal on MAY 1 2013, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.779777[EN] An alternative procedure for assessment of reservoir Operation Rules (ORs) under drought situations is proposed. The definition of ORs for multi-reservoir water resources systems (WRSs) is a topic that has been widely studied by means of optimization and simulation techniques. A traditional approach is to link optimization methods with simulation models. Thus the objective here is to obtain drought ORs for a real and complex WRS: the Júcar River basin in Spain, in which one of the main issues is the resource allocation among agricultural demands in periods of drought. To deal with this problem, a method based on the combined use of genetic algorithms (GA) and network flow optimization (NFO) is presented. The GA used was PIKAIA, which has previously been used in other water resources related fields. This algorithm was linked to the SIMGES simulation model, a part of the AQUATOOL decision support system (DSS). Several tests were developed for defining the parameters of the GA. The optimization of various ORs was analysed with the objective of minimizing short-term and long-term water deficits. The results show that simple ORs produce similar results to more sophisticated ones. The usefulness of this approach in the assessment of ORs for complex multi-reservoir systems is demonstrated.The authors wish to thank the Confederacion Hidrogrofica del Jucar (Spanish Ministry of the Environment) for the data provided in developing this study and the Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia, CICYT (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) for funding the projects INTEGRAME (contract CGL2009-11798) and SCARCE (programme Consolider-Ingenio 2010, project CSD2009-00065). The authors also thank the European Commission (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation) for funding the project DROUGHT-R&SPI (programme FP7-ENV-2011, project 282769) and the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission for funding the project SIRIUS (FP7-SPACE-2010-1, project 262902). We are grateful to the reviewers for their valuable comments, which have improved this paper.Lerma Elvira, N.; Paredes Arquiola, J.; Andreu Álvarez, J.; Solera Solera, A. (2013). Development of operating rules for a complex multireservoir system by coupling genetic algorithms and network optimization. Hydrological Sciences Journal. 58(4):797-812. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.779777S79781258

Water resources research at IIASA: 1973-1988

IIASA's history of research accomplishments is recorded in a wide variety of research publications, correspondence files, annual reports, books and working papers. Especially in the area of water resources research, which has spanned the entire 15-year history of IIASA, this amounts to a sizable number of papers stored or stacked in a wide variety of places inside and outside of IIASA's home, Schloss Laxenburg. For some time I have thought it would be useful to have a summary report available to those who come to IIASA not knowing this history of experiences and accomplishments. Hence some months ago I asked Janusz Kindler, whose tenure of leadership of the water resources area was the longest of anyone to date, to undertake the writing of such a summary history. He subsequently asked Pete Loucks, who has observed what has been happening at IIASA since 1974, to help, and together they have prepared what is contained in the pages that follow. Any recording of history is merely a perception. It could well be that the perception of what took place over these past 15 years, as summarized in this document, may contain errors or omissions. We hope everyone associated with IIASA's water resources research programs will send to the authors any comments they think would add to the completeness and accuracy of this record