DRIVING OPTIMUM TRADE-OFF BETWEEN THE BENEFITS AND COSTS OF INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFER PROJECTS

The interbasin water transfer is a remedy to mitigate the negative issues of water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions. In a water transfer project the receiving basin always benefits while, the sending basin may suffer. In this study, the project of interbasin water transfer from Dez water resources system in south-west of Iran to the central part of the contrary is investigated during a drought period. To this end, a multi-objective optimization model is developed based on the Non Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). The optimum trade-off between the water supply benefits into and out of the Dez River basin as well as energy production is derived. Formulating the problem as a multi-objective optimization provides a better insight into the gains and losses of a water transfer project. Analyzing the case study, revealed that to reach an acceptable level of reliability for meeting the water demands it is no longer possible to generate hydropower energy with high levels of reliability.