A model for optimal allocation of water to competing demands

The present study develops a simple interactive water allocation model (IWAM), which can assist planners and decision makers in optimal allocation of limited water from a storage reservoir to different user sectors, considering socio-economic, environmental and technical aspects. IWAM comprises three modules – a reservoir operation module (ROM), an economic analysis module (EAM) and a water allocation module (WAM). The model can optimize the water allocation with any of two different objectives or two objectives together. The two individual objectives included in the model are the maximization of satisfaction and the maximization of net economic benefit by the demand sectors. Weighting technique (WT) or simultaneous compromise constraint (SICCON) technique is used to convert the multi-objective decision-making problem into a single objective function. The single objective functions are optimized using linear programming. The model applicability is demonstrated for various cases with a hypothetical example.