Optimizing Irrigation Deficit of Multipurpose Cascade Reservoirs

Reservoirs play a strategic role in the rapid monetary growth of the world by providing numerous benefits. However, the reduction in appropriate sites along with environmental and social apprehensions has resulted in curtailment of new reservoirs around the world in twenty-first century. There is a potential of benefits available from existing reservoirs which can be best capitalized through their optimized operation. Reservoirs Operation Optimization considering Sediment Evacuation (RESOOSE), recently developed model which combines multiple reservoirs operation and sediment evacuation with Genetic Algorithm based optimization module, has been used in the study. The objective of the study was to optimize the irrigation deficit through cascade reservoirs with consideration to hydropower, sediment evacuation and flood damages reduction benefits. The RESOOSE model was applied to optimize the irrigation deficits of Tarbela and Diamer Basha Reservoirs in Pakistan using developed objective function. The article computed and compared the benefits of optimized and existing rule curves. The hydropower benefits of 36.92 Billion Kw, sediment evacuation benefits of 21.534 Million m³ and flood damages of 616.19 Million US$ due to existing rule curves were considered as minimum benefits for achieving the optimized rule curves to minimize irrigation deficits. The developed optimized rule curves reduced the irrigation shortages of case study reservoirs from 6.9 to 5.8 Billion m³ (16% enhancement) annually as compared to existing rule curves. The optimized rule curves minimized the irrigation deficits by maintaining the existing benefits and without lowering the minimum operating levels of case study reservoirs. The study suggests change in existing rule curves of Tarbela and Diamer Basha Reservoirs due to less irrigation shortages. The RESOOSE model can be applied to other cascade reservoirs for optimizing the rule curves.