Premium
Optimization of a dam system for recharging runoff water into the ground
Author(s) -
Nov Amihud,
Golany Pinhas
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr015i004p00891
Subject(s) - groundwater recharge , surface runoff , arid , groundwater , hydrology (agriculture) , minification , environmental science , drainage basin , aquifer , geology , mathematical optimization , mathematics , geotechnical engineering , geography , ecology , paleontology , cartography , biology
This work presents a method for a routine determination of an optimal combination of small dams in mountainous catchments. The method is meant for arid and semiarid climates, where wells are the main source of water. The objective of the dams is to impound runoff water and recharge it, through the reservoirs formed by them, into the ground, thereby augmenting the natural replenishment of groundwater. The objective function calls for a minimization of the cost of the recharged water. The optimization technique is dynamic programing. The method is confined to the mathematical formulation of the optimization procedure. Although this formulation is made in terms of the hydrological and geometrical variables concerned, no reference is made to the hydrological and structural information; it is assumed that this information is available. A purposeful use of this optimization method requires appropriate methods (yet to be proposed) of supplying and processing the vast hydrological information necessary. The results obtained from an application of this method (the cost of the recharged water and a description of the corresponding dam system) are given for different, arbitrarily selected average annual recharge volumes up to the total average annual runoff yield of the catchment. From a rigorous, formal point of view the method violates the principles of dynamic programing. This violation becomes permissible owing to certain controls, inherent in the process, regulating it from within.