Effect of inflow forecast accuracy and operating time horizon in optimizing irrigation releases

In this study, application of Genetic Algorithms (GA) is demonstrated to optimize reservoir release policies to meet irrigation demand and storage requirements. As it is commonly recognized that accuracy of inflow forecast and operating time horizon affects the optimal policies, a trial-and-error approach is suggested to identify the appropriate trade-off between forecast accuracy and operating horizon. The flexibility offered by GA to set up and evaluate objective functions is exploited towards this end. The results are also compared with Linear Programming (LP) model. It is concluded that forecasts models of high accuracy are desirable, particularly when the system is to be operated for periods of high demand. In such cases, the optimization with longer time horizon ensures achievement of the objective more uniformly over the period of operation. The performance of GA is found to be better than LP, when forecast model of higher accuracy and longer period of operating horizon are considered for optimization.