Title | Minimization of cost, sediment load, and sensitivity to climate change in a watershed management application |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2013 |
Authors | Chichakly, KJ, Bowden, WB, Eppstein, MJ |
Journal | Environmental Modelling & Software |
Volume | 50 |
Start Page | 158 |
Pagination | 158 - 168 |
Date Published | 2013/12 |
ISSN | 13648152 |
Keywords | Best management practices (BMPs), Differential evolution, Multiobjective, Robustness to uncertainty, Stormwater management, Total maximum daily load (TMDL) |
Abstract | One challenge of climate change adaptation is to design watershed-based stormwater management plans that meet current total maximum daily load targets and also take into consideration anticipated changes in future precipitation patterns. We present a multi-scale, multiobjective framework for generating a diverse family of stormwater best management practice (BMP) plans for entire watersheds. Each of these alternative BMP configurations are non-dominated by any other identified solution with respect to cost of the implementation of the management plan and sediment loading predicted at the outflow of the watershed; those solutions are then pruned with respect to dominance in sensitivity to predicted changes in precipitation patterns. We first use GIS data to automatically precompute a set of cost-optimal BMP configurations for each subwatershed, over its entire range of possible treatment levels. We then formulate each solution as a real-valued vector of treatment levels for the subwatersheds and employ a staged multiobjective optimization approach using differential evolution to generate sets of non-dominated solutions. Finally, selected solutions are mapped back to the corresponding preoptimized BMP configurations for each subwatershed. The integrated method is demonstrated on the Bartlett Brook mixed-used impaired watershed in South Burlington, VT, and patterns in BMP configurations along the non-dominated front are investigated. Watershed managers and other stakeholders could use this approach to assess the relative trade-offs of alternative stormwater BMP configurations. |
URL | http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1364815213002004 |
DOI | 10.1016/j.envsoft.2013.09.009 |
Short Title | Environmental Modelling & Software |
Refereed Designation | Refereed |
Minimization of cost, sediment load, and sensitivity to climate change in a watershed management application
Status:
Published
Attributable Grant:
RACC
Grant Year:
Year4 StatusChanged
Acknowledged VT EPSCoR:
Ack-Yes