Water Resour Manage DOI 10.

1007/s11269-011-9892-0

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity of Command Area by Elitist Genetic Algorithm
A. S. Garudkar & A. K. Rastogi & T. I. Eldho & S. D. Gorantiwar

Received: 17 September 2010 / Accepted: 25 July 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V 2011 .

Abstract A number of models with conventional optimization techniques have been developed for optimization of reservoir water release policies. However these models are not able to consider the heterogeneity in the command area of the reservoir appropriately, due to non linear nature of the processes involved. The optimization model based on genetic algorithm (GA) can deal with the non linearity due to its inherent ability to consider complex simulation model as evaluation function for optimization. GA based models available in literature generally minimize the water deficits and do not optimize the total net benefits through optimal reservoir release policies. The present study focuses on optimum releases from the reservoir considering heterogeneity of the command area and responses of the command area to the releases instead of minimizing only the reservoir storage volumes. An optimization model has been developed for the reservoir releases based on elitist GA approach considering the heterogeneity of the command area. The developed model was applied to Waghad irrigation project in upper Godavari basin of Maharashtra, India. The results showed that 19% increase in the total net benefits could be possible by adopting the proposed water release policy over the present practice keeping same distribution of area under different crops. The model presented in this study can also optimize the crop area under irrigation. It is found that irrigated area can be increased to 50% of ICA (Irrigable Command Area) from the existing 23% with resulting addition to total net benefits by 31%. The effect of adopting the proposed irrigation schedule and increased irrigation areas would be to increase the net benefits to existing farmers. Keywords Elitist genetic algorithm . Reservoir operating policies . Heterogeneity of command area . Crop growth model . Waghad irrigation project

A. S. Garudkar : A. K. Rastogi : T. I. Eldho (*) Department of Civil Engg., IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India e-mail: eldho@civil.iitb.ac.in S. D. Gorantiwar Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engg, MPKV Rahuri, Ahmadnagar, Maharashtra, India ,

A.S. Garudkar et al.

1 Introduction The share of water for irrigation is continuously decreasing in many parts of the world including India as more and more water needs to be made available for industrial and domestic water uses. Food requirement for the growing population makes it imperative to increase the area under planned irrigation, as the productivity of irrigated agriculture is certainly more than the productivity of rain fed agriculture. Hence it is extremely important to enhance the efficiency of irrigation water to bring more cultivable land under planned irrigation. There are several ways to increase water use efficiency. These include improved irrigation scheduling, adoption of water saving irrigation methods and optimum allocation of water. This paper particularly focuses on optimum releases from the storage reservoir to obtain maximum water use efficiency. Conventional optimization techniques viz. linear programming, non linear programming and dynamic programming have been extensively used for the optimization of the water resources for irrigation. V edula and Majumdar (1992), Karamouz et al. (1992), Crawley and Dandy (1993), Lund and Ferreira (1996), Dandy et al. (1997), Wardlaw and Barnes (1999), Loucks et al. (2000), Paul Sabu et al. (2000) and Gorantiwar and Smout (2005) presented the detailed methodologies and algorithms using conventional methods for optimum utilization of water resources for irrigation. However the non linearity associated with the complex reservoir systems is inadequately addressed by these optimization techniques. This is due to the fact that conventional techniques require an optimization process to be formulated in a particular format. For example: linear programming needs the objective function and the constraints to be formulated as a set of linear equations that is not often a case with the water resources system. Dynamic programming needs the problem to be separated into number of states and stages. The optimality may be lost if certain states are ignored and number of stages are minimized. On the other hand number of stages and states need to be limited due to computational requirement that increases exponentially with number of stages and states. Non linear programming has approximation problems dealing with non-differentiable, non-convex and multi-modal objective functions. Thus due to difficulties in considering non linearity appropriately by conventional optimization techniques, the possibility of obtaining the realistic solution is adversely affected. Genetic algorithm is a search method that mimics natural biological evolution process to find out near optimal solutions and operates on a population of potential solutions that satisfy a specified set of constraints. The solution space is continuously updated by an evolution process till the solution is obtained based on satisfaction of a specified criteria. Problems of varying complexities and dimensions of water resources systems are solved by GA. Chen Y u-Ming (1997), Wardlaw and Sharif (1999), Sheng-Feng Kuo et al. (2000), Labadie (2004), Raju and Kumar (2004), Ahmed and Sarma (2005), Jothiprakash and Shanthi (2006), and Momtahen and Dariane (2007) concluded that though genetic algorithm does not appear to be providing the global optimal solution but certainly assures the near global optimal solution and has an inherent ability to consider the complexity of any degree. Raju and Kumar (2004), Nagesh Kumar et al. (2006), Ahmed and Sarma (2005) and Sharif and Wardlaw (2000) confirmed that GA compares acceptably with conventional optimization techniques. Hnal et al. (2011) compared results of energy maximization due to three reservoirs in the Colorado River storage project by GA with real operation data and concluded that GA is an alternative technique to other traditional optimization techniques. Thus GA has an added advantage of representing the complexity of the system to be optimized adequately over conventional optimization technique due to its inherent ability of evaluating the function/model that simulates the real system.

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity

Most of the previous studies on optimal irrigation water releases by GA considered the command area of the irrigation project as one unit meaning that the command area is homogenous in respect of soil, climate and water delivery system (single field typeChen Y uMing 1997; Sheng-Feng Kuo et al. (2000) and Momtahen and Dariane 2007). However the irrigation water deliveries i.e. water releases from the reservoirs depend on soil, crop and their growth stages, amount and timing of water and farm management practices and hence the single field type models do not provide the optimum releases of water from the reservoir. Raju and Kumar (2004) and Nagesh Kumar et al. (2006) considered the parameters that influence the irrigation water deliveries in the optimization process of genetic algorithm. However these studies did not particularly consider optimizing water releases from the reservoir, but focused on minimizing the shortages or deficit in the reservoir due to certain predefined water release policy. Hence as such they do not propose optimum release policy. According to Gorantiwar and Smout (2005), optimization of water release schedule by considering the heterogeneity of command area (multi field type) in terms of soil, climate, irrigation method and water delivery system is more relevant as these parameters influence crop yield and the subsequent net benefits. Hence these types of models can provide water release schedules for optimization of the net benefits. The present study emphasizes on deciding the releases of water from the storage reservoir for optimum utilization of water for irrigation and presents the methodologies developed for the formulation of the model and its application to a field problem. The developed model aims at finding canal water releases during each intra seasonal period or rotation wise water releases for maximizing the net benefits derived from the command area in response to these water releases. The rotation wise canal water releases are decision variables. The net benefits in response to a set of canal water release are simulated by allocating the releases to different crops grown in different units of the command area according to a pre specified allocation policy with the help of simulation model.

2 Modeling Methodology The optimization model using genetic algorithm has been developed to obtain optimum water releases from storage reservoir. The objective function is maximization of the net benefits in response to water releases during different intraseasonal rotation periods for irrigation from different canals of a reservoir. The objective function (Z) can be mathematically represented by Eq. 1 as follow: Max Z
N X i1

Bi Rip f Pnl

Rip

Ep X tSp

Rit

Where, Z = total net benefits, N = number of canals, Bi = net benefits, f (pnl) = penalty 0 function for violation of the constraints, Rip = matrix of releases from the reservoir i.e. Ri 1, Ri2.Rip for irrigation through ith canal during pth rotation period, p = total number of rotations/irrigations during irrigation season, Rit = release from the reservoir for irrigation through ith canal on tth day, sp = starting day of pth irrigation or rotation period Ep = ending day of pth irrigation period. 2.1 Penalty Function During the successive generations of the population in the process of evolution in GA, it is possible that certain strings amongst generated population may not satisfy the constraints

A.S. Garudkar et al.

but tend to produce optimum solution. In order to discourage such strings from entering into the solution space and at the same time to retain the information contained in the string for successive generations, it is necessary to penalize them by reducing the value of the function for the maximization and increasing the value for the minimization problem by way of penalty function. In this formulation, there is a possibility that certain strings or a set of water releases might violate canal capacity and reservoir storage constraints. The string is then penalized by reducing value of the function by the quantity with which the dead storage is encroached and canal capacities are exceeded. Mathematically penalty function is given by Eq. 2 as f pnl
T X t1

Maxsmin st ; 0

N T XX t1 t1

MaxQi Rit ; 0

Where, T = number of days, S min = minimum storage or dead storage capacity, St = storage on tth day, Qi = canal capacity of ith canal. 2.2 Constraints The following constraints need to be satisfied while optimizing the objective function, 1) Reservoir storage constraint Reservoir storage on any tth day (St) should not exceed gross storage capacity of the reservoir (Smax) or should not be less than dead storage capacity (Smin) of the reservoir as given by Eq. 3 smin st smax for t 1; . . . . . . ; T 3

2) Canal capacity constraints The quantity of water released from a canal on tth day should not exceed its capacity as given by Eq. 4. Rit Qi for t 1; . . . ; T and i 1; . . . :; N 4

3) Reservoir mass balance constraint Reservoir mass balance as given by following continuity equation should not be violated on any given day St1 St It Rft
N X i1

Rit Ot Oot Et Zt

Where, St = storage in the reservoir at the beginning of tth day, It = inflow in the reservoir on tth day, Rft = rainfall over the submergence area of reservoir on tth day, Ot = spill from the reservoir on tth day, Oot = other withdrawals of water on tth day, Et = evaporation from the reservoir water spread area on tth day and Zt = seepage from the reservoir on tth day. 2.3 Fitness Function The fitness function
N P i1

Bi Rip in Eq. 1 is evaluated with the help of the simulation model

which is described in this section. As stated earlier, the total net benefits are derived due to

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity

allocation of canal water for irrigation to different crops grown on different units of the command area. The releases from the canal Rip are distributed over different units in the command area of the project according to a predefined policy e.g. water allocation to a unit is proportional to irrigable command area of the unit. According to this policy, the water that is available at the outlet of the unit is obtained by using Eq. 6 rkip
0

Rip Akip hcki TAip

TAip

nki X k1

Akip

p 1; p; i 1; N

Where, rk i p = water released at the outlet of kth unit of ith canal during pth rotation period, Akip = total area to be brought under irrigation or irrigation area of kth unit of ith canal during pth rotation period, nki = number of units in the command area of ith canal and cki = conveyance efficiency for delivery of water to kth unit of ith canal from the headworks. The water deliveries to individual crop in a unit command area grown on different soils are estimated by Eq. 7 rjlpki
0

rkip ajlpki hdki Akip

Where, rjlpki = water released to the field having jth crop grown on lth soil of kth unit on ith canal during pth rotation period, ajlpki = area to be brought under irrigation of jth crop grown on lth soil of kth unit on ith canal during pth rotation period, and hdkl = the distribution efficiency within the command area of kth unit on ith canal of delivering water from outlet to field. The depth of water applied to the field is estimated as given by Eq. 8 djlpki r
0

jlpki hajlki

ajlk i

Where, djlpki = the depth of water applied during pth rotation period to a field having jth crop grown in lth soil of kth unit on ith canal, haj l k i = the application efficiency of irrigation system used for jth crop grown in lth soil of kth unit on ith canal. The yields and net benefits from a particular crop grown on a particular soil of a particular unit in response to water applied during different rotation periods over its growing season are estimated by simulating actual evapotransporation by performing the soil water balance in the root zone of a crop by Eq. 9. q t q t1 ERt dt s t ETat DPt
th

Where, t = volumetric soil moisture content in the root zone at the end of t day, ERt = effective rainfall received on tth day; dt = depth of irrigation water applied on tth day, t = the contribution of water to the root zone from capillary rise of ground water on tth day, ETa t = water lost from the root zone on tth day and used for the crop growth and DPt = the application of water in the root zone (by effective rainfall or by irrigation) in excess of the water holdings capacity of the root zone that is lost as a deep percolation. ETat ETmt if qt qw Rzt ! 1 pqf qw Rzt otherwise; ETat qt q w RZt ETmt =1 p qf q w RZt

10

Where, ETmt = maximum crop evapotranspiration on tth day and is equal to ETrt*kct, ETrt = reference crop evapotranspiration on tth day (estimated by Penman Monteith

A.S. Garudkar et al.

method), kct = crop coefficient on tth day, p = soil water depletion factor, f = volumetric soil moisture content in the root zone at field capacity, w = volumetric soil moisture content in the root zone at wilting point; Rzt = root zone depth on tth day since sowing/ planting of crop in mm and given by Rz 0+ (Rz mRz0) t/tm (Fereres et al. 1981) where, Rz0 = root zone depth at the time of sowing/planting, Rz m = maximum root zone depth, tm days required for root depth to reach Rzm Following stage wise crop growth model (Eq. 11) proposed by Stewart and Hagan (1973) is used to simulate the crop yield.   ns X Ya SETms SETas 1 Kys Ym SETms s1 SETms
YES X tYSS

ETmt and SETas

YES X tYSS

11 ETat

Where Ya = actual crop yield; Ym = maximum potential yield; s = subscript for crop growth stage; Kys = yield response factor for sth stage; SETms = maximum crop evapotranspiration for sth stage (mm); SETas = actual crop evapotranspiration for sth stage (mm); ns = total number of crop growth stages; YSS = starting day of sth crop growth stage, YEs = ending day of sth crop growth stage. The net benefits per unit area of irrigated land are estimated by calculating the cost incurred and benefits derived from cultivation of the crops. The total net benefits are then estimated by summing up net benefits of each unit.

3 Elitist Genetic Algorithm Approach The optimization process in genetic algorithm (GA) starts with generating a set of strings (chromosomes) of variables that represent the decision variables. These strings are operated successively by GA operators viz. selection, crossover and mutation till the prescribed criteria of optimum solution are satisfied. The set of strings of variables that satisfies the prescribed criteria consists of the optimal solution. The flow chart for optimization of reservoir water release policy is given in Fig. 1. Deb (2001) reported that the GA converges quickly to global optimum solution for some functions in presence of elitism. Hence elitism was introduced in this study. In elitist GA formulation, some of the best parents i.e. strings are retained for next generation and additional required strings are generated by crossover. The number of strings retained is indicated by a parameter called Percentage of Elitism. Thus the strings of variables which consist of optimal solution are randomly divided into two groups according to population to be retained. One group is retained to form next generation. The cross over and mutation operators are applied to another group till optimal solution is arrived as per prescribed criteria. In the present formulation, the decision variables are rotation wise releases in the canal i.e. Rip and this forms the string of the GA. Releases of each rotation from each canal i.e. Rip forms the gene. The total net benefits in response to application of rotation wise releases form the fitness function. The studies of Oliveira and Loucks (1997), Chang and Chen (1998), Wardlaw and Sharif (1999), Sharif and Wardlaw (2000), Deb (2001) and Taesoon and JunHaeng (2004) revealed that real coded representation of the variables is more effective as compared to binary coded representation. Hence real coded representation of the variables was adopted in this study. Initially a specified number of strings of decision variables involving rotation wise canal water release (called population) are generated randomly. The

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity

Fig. 1 The flow chart for optimization of reservoir water release policy with genetic algorithm

population of strings is then subjected to following GA operators successively till the prescribed criterion is satisfied. 3.1 GA Operators Selection Roulette wheel selection proposed by Goldberg (1989) was commonly used in earlier reservoir operation studies. However according to Goldberg and Deb (1990), Cieniawski et al. (1995), Yang and Soh (1997), Wardlaw and Sharif (1999) and Deb (2000), tournament selection scheme has the distinct advantage over other selection schemes and hence it was used in this study. In this method specified number of (commonly two) strings are chosen from the population and better one is selected. Tournament selection operator satisfies the following three criteria: (1) Any feasible solution is preferred to any infeasible solution. (2) Between two feasible solutions, the one having better objective function value is preferred. (3) Between two infeasible solutions, one having smallest constraint violation is preferred.

A.S. Garudkar et al.

Crossover Goldberg (1989) and Michalewicz (1992) described various methods of cross over viz. single point, multi point and uniform crossover. However Oliveira and Loucks (1997), Sharif and Wardlaw (2000), and Kuo et al. (2003) recommended uniform cross over, and hence it was used in this study. Goldberg (1989) suggested to adopt high crossover probability for good performance of GA. Wardlaw and Sharif (1999) found cross over probability between 0.70.8 give optimal solution in least number of generations. Mutation The two basic approaches to mutation for real-value representations are uniform mutation and non uniform mutation (Michalewicz 1992). Uniform mutation that permits the value of a gene to be mutated randomly within its feasible range of values has been used. According to Wardlaw and Sharif (1999), mutation probabilities in the range of 0.002 0.208 are most suitable for reservoir operation optimization. Termination Criteria For termination of GA, criteria can be: 1) Fix number of generations depending on string length, computing speed and desired accuracy, 2) Specified number of generations giving same value of max fitness, 3) Specified difference in the successive values of average fitness over specified number (say 10 generation giving specified% change in function value) and 4) Fix number of generations together with specified number of generations giving same value of max fitness. The first termination criterion was used for this study.

3.2 Optimization of Area to Be Irrigated The elitist GA presented in this paper as stated in previous section optimises the water release policies for known distribution of area under different crops for irrigation. However the specified or prevalent crop area may not be optimum. In this case, the area for irrigation under different crops needs to be optimised along with the water release policy. The methodology for optimization of crop area to obtain maximum benefits is proposed in this paper and presented in Fig 2. Area which offers maximum net benefits is selected.

4 Case Study The developed model was applied to Waghad irrigation project in Godavari basin in Maharashtra, India. The dam is constructed across river Kolwan near village Waghad (20 14 N latitude and 73 43 E longitude) in Nashik district in Maharashtra state of India. The catchment area of the reservoir is 119 km2 and area under submergence is 1090 ha. The average annual rainfall in the catchment area is 902 mm. The average daily temperature in the catchment and command area ranges between 12C to 40C. The gross storage capacity of the project is 76480 thousand cubic meters. It has two canals: Waghad Right Bank canal (WRBC) and Waghad Left Bank Canal (WLBC) irrigating 6750 ha area. The location and index map of Waghad project is shown in Fig. 3. Major crops grown in the command area are sugarcane, grapes, wheat, gram, maize, onion, tomato, hot weather groundnut and cauliflower. They are grown in three seasons namely rabi (winter), hot weather (summer) and kharif (rainy). Crop calendar for the project is shown in Fig 4. Normally there is less demand of water during kharif as the major portion of rainfall is received during this season. The prominent soil types in the command area are loamy sand, sandy loam, clay loam and clay. The command areas of outlets/minors/ distributaries from main canal were considered as unit with 31 units in the entire project

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity Fig. 2 Flow chart for obtaining the optimized irrigated area

area. The conveyance losses were considered as 2% percent of canal flow per km and distribution efficiencies as 80%. These values were obtained from diagnostic analysis studies of WRBC and WLBC. The values of application efficiencies were 75% for surface and 95% for drip irrigation method (W ALMI 1987; 1996). The rotation wise actual water releases of WRBC and WLBC during 200607 are presented in Table 1. On the basis of evapotranspiration values of different crops in different seasons, the optimum irrigation interval values were proposed by Gorantiwar and Smout (2005) for the state of Maharashtra. These are 4, 3 and 2 weeks for Kharif, Rabi and hot weather seasons respectively. The irrigation season starts from 15th October in Maharashtra. Rabi season for irrigation purpose is considered between 15th October to 28th February of next year and hence first rotation is considered from 15th October to 4th November. Subsequent rotations in this season are at an interval of 21 days till 28th February of next year. The Rabi season

Fig. 3 The location and index map of Waghad irrigation project

A.S. Garudkar et al.

Fig. 4 Crop calendar of Waghad irrigation project

thus constitutes 6 rotations. Hot weather season for irrigation purpose starts from 1st March to 30th June. There are 9 rotations in hot weather season at an interval of 14 days and 4 rotations in Kharif at an interval of 21 days. Thus 19 rotations during the year are considered for this study. As this project has two canals, each with 19 rotations, total decision variables were 38. The string of GA thus consists of 38 decision variables (genes).

5 Results and Discussion The developed model was applied to Waghad irrigation project for obtaining rotation wise optimum water releases from both the canals of the reservoir. Three cases were considered in order to explain the utility of GA based optimization, including existing policy. These are: Case I: The evaluation of existing water release policy. Case II: The water release policy for existing area but with more rotations by GA model. Case III: The water release policy for the maximization of total net benefits by optimally allocating the areas to different crops (without disturbing existing crop) mix by GA model. All the three cases consider the same set of crops and same crop mix or proportion. The crops and crop mix that were considered are those that followed in the Waghad irrigation
Table 1 Rotation wise actual water releases from canals of Waghad irrigation project Rotation Waghad right bank canal number Rotation period Waghad left bank canal Quantity of released Rotation period water (thousand m3) 8428 6321 5267 8158 4533 32707 24/11/2006 to 25/12/2006 05/01/2007 to 22/01/2007 01/2/2007 to 15/02/2007 21/2/2007 to 3/3/2007 28/03/07 to 15/04/07 29/04/2007 to 13/05/07 Quantity of released water (thousand m3) 2327 980 857 674 1164 919 6921

1 2 3 4 5 6 Total

24/11/2006 to 25/12/2006 05/01/2007 to 22/01/2007 01/2/2007 to 15/02/2007 28/03/07 to 15/04/07 26/04/2007 to 13/05/07

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity Fig. 5 Sensitivity analysis for cross over probability

project. The purpose of Case I is to evaluate the existing situation i.e. existing water release policy and hence the areas under different crops that were actually irrigated and rotations that were actually followed are considered. Case II considers 19 rotations that are recommended for this region instead of 5 to 6 rotations and optimization by GA was performed to obtain 19 releases for the areas under different crops that were actually irrigated. Case III also considers 19 rotations but at the same instance investigates the possibility of irrigating more area under different crops than the actual ones for obtaining more benefits with same crop mix by GA. This is performed by proportionally increasing the area under different crops and obtaining the optimum water release policy and benefits by GA for each instance and selecting the water release policy and area that provide maximum net benefits. Oliveira and Loucks (1997) reported that it is preferable to select a small population size and allow it to evolve for more generations than to select a larger population and evolve for fewer generations. Large population sizes yield good policies if the algorithm is run for many generations. Conversely, small population sizes perform well at the initial stages of the evolution, but their relative performance decreases if the algorithm is run for many generations. It is reported that the results are sensitive to population size. In this study, the population size of 30 was considered and the GAwas terminated after 500 generations after the initial trial run. Sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the value of crossover and mutation probability. The most appropriate crossover probability was found to be 0.7 (Fig. 5) for mutation probability of 0.002. Sensitivity to mutation probability was carried out for cross over probability of 0.7. The value of fitness function (optimal value) decreased above mutation probability of 0.005 (Fig. 6). The appropriate value of mutation probability was found to be 0.002.
Fig. 6 Sensitivity analysis for mutation probability

A.S. Garudkar et al. Fig. 7 Actual water release policy of right and left bank canal of Waghad irrigation project (Case I)

5.1 Case I: Evaluation of Existing Water Release Policy The actual water release policies of 200607 shown in Fig. 7 for WRBC and WLBC were evaluated. Irrigation was provided in five rotations to WRBC and six rotations to WLBC during Rabi and hot weather seasons. These rotations were decided on discretion of irrigation authorities by considering the general crop conditions and are less than the proposed for the region. This also indicates the need of proper reservoir water release policy that takes into consideration water availability and the demands on scientific basis. The area under irrigation in this year was 23% of Irrigable Command Area (ICA) of the project. Total water released for the purpose of irrigation was 39628 thousand m3 (Fig. 7). The total net benefits for both the canals were estimated as 118.33 million rupees (M Rs) with simulation model i. e. evaluation function of GA model. GA optimization model was not run for this case. 5.2 Case II: Water Release Policy for the Existing Irrigated Area The optimum water release policies for WRBC and WLBC were determined by the developed model for existing area. Nineteen rotations each from both the canals were considered for this case. The parameters of GA formulation used for this purpose were: population=30, generations =500, number of tournament selection=10, cross over probability=0.7 and mutation probability=0.002. It was observed that the optimal total net benefits increased to 140.5 M Rs. The results are presented in Fig. 8. The figure shows two curves one for average total net benefits and another for maximum total net benefits. As discussed in earlier sections, the GA operates on a set of solutions rather than single solution in each generation. Thus each generation of GA provides a set of solutions called as population which is 30 in this case. The total net benefits of all 30 solutions were averaged and shown by average total net benefit curve. The solution that provides the
Fig. 8 Benefits of Waghad irrigation project for existing area (200607) over successive generations (Case II)

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity

Fig. 9 Water release policy for Waghad right bank canal for existing area (Case II)

maximum benefits amongst all the 30 solutions is shown by maximum total net benefits curve. This solution is considered as the optimal solution. A number of possible near optimal solutions at last generation of GA gives the decision makers a flexibility in selection in different scenarios and this is considered as one of the greatest benefit of GA. The optimum water release policies for both the canals are shown in Figs. 9 and 10. Total water used for this case is 27570 thousand m3 which is obtained by summation of all the releases (Figs. 9 and 10). Comparison of two policies i.e. actual (Case I) and GA based (Case II) indicates that more water (39628 thousand m3) was used in less number of rotations (five to six rotations) in actual policy as compared to less water (27570 thousand m3) in more number of rotations (nineteen) in GA based policy. In Case-I, water application was more than the required quantity. Hence it resulted into deep percolation losses as water holding capacity of the soils is limited. Similarly the interval between water applications was also prolonged. This caused deficit irrigation even with more application of water that resulted into less yield and total net benefits. In GA based policy, number of rotations increased from 6 to 19 which resulted in to less deep percolation losses even though conveyance losses were marginally increased. The water application interval in this case nearly matched with consumptive use and hence with 30% less quantity of water, total net benefits were increased by 19%. 5.3 Case III. Optimal Water Release Policy In case II, the optimum water release policy was obtained for the presently irrigated area with the help of GA model. There was saving of water which can be used to irrigate

Fig. 10 Water release policy of Waghad left bank canal for existing area (Case II)

A.S. Garudkar et al. Table 2 Different irrigable areas and corresponding maximum total net benefits for the existing crop mix Sr No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Area under irrigation (% of ICA) 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Maximum total net benefits (M Rs) 135.46 141.82 144.83 147.12 149.44 152.37 155.15 150.04 141.08

additional area as existing area was only 23% of irrigable command area (ICA). Hence there is a possibility to increase the total net benefits by increasing the area under irrigation proportionally of the present beneficiaries by practicing the optimized deficit irrigation (Gorantiwar and Smout 2003). Therefore the optimal total net benefits were estimated by successively increasing the area under irrigation with the help of GA model (Fig. 2). The same existing cropping mix was also considered in this case. The GA formulation used for this purpose was: population=30; generations=500; no of tournament selection=10; cross over probability=0.7 and mutation probability=0.002. The results are shown in Table 2. It is observed from Table 2 that there is gradual increase in total net benefits till the area under irrigation is up to 50% of ICA. The total net benefits obtained for irrigated area equal to 50% of ICA is maximum (155.15 M Rs). The average total net benefits and maximum total net benefits over the generations for the area equal to 50% of ICA are shown in Fig. 11 and corresponding optimal water release policies for WRBC and WLBC are presented in Figs. 12 and 13 respectively. The results of Case III indicate that 50% of ICA can be brought under irrigation resulting into 31% increase in total net benefits compared to Case I. This was possible because the change in irrigated area provided the flexibility to GA model to release water according to consumptive use for the optimal benefits. 5.4 Use of Elitist GA Elitism was introduced in the developed GA model and applied to Case III. Twenty percent elitism was used in this study. The maximum total net benefits increased to 158.68 M Rs
Fig. 11 Benefits of Waghad irrigation Project for the optimized irrigated area (50% ICA)(Case III)

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity

Fig. 12 Optimum water release policy for Waghad right bank canal for the existing crop mix (Case III)

(Fig. 14) compared to 155.15 M Rs by introduction of elitism in GA. The optimal reservoir operating policies for WRBC and WLBC with elitist GA are presented in Figs. 15 and 16 respectively. The irrigated area, water releases and corresponding benefits for various cases are presented in Table 3. As stated before in GA based cases the solution that provided the maximum total net benefits amongst all the solutions of last generation were considered. 5.5 Discussion It is seen from Table 3, that if the irrigation is provided in more rotations that takes into account the crops, their growth stages and soil, it is possible to increase the total net benefits by about 19% for the same area that is being currently irrigated. The GA based model has indicated the possibility of increasing the area under irrigation from 23% to 50% and increase in total net benefits by 31% by following the approach prescribed in this paper. Thus the effect of adopting the proposed schedule and increased irrigated area would be to increase the benefits to the existing farmers. The refinement in GA algorithm by introducing elitism has the capability to further improve the allocation policies. The existing water release policy of Waghad Irrigation Project consists of providing 5 to 6 irrigations during Rabi and hot weather season and none or one irrigation in Kharif season. The number of irrigations are normally decided by the irrigation authorities on the

Fig. 13 Optimum water release policy for Waghad left bank canal for the existing crop mix (Case III)

A.S. Garudkar et al. Fig. 14 Benefits for optimum water release policy with elitist GA for the existing area over successive generations (Case III with elitism)

basis of general crop conditions. However as discussed in this paper, it is necessary to match the periods of water delivery with the periods of water requirement and the water delivery amount must match with the water requirement to minimize the loss of water due to deep percolation. Therefore there is a necessity to optimize the irrigation interval during different seasons of a year considering the heterogeneity in crop, soil, climate and conveyance and distribution losses. Gorantiwar and Smout (2005) worked out these intervals to be 4, 3 and 2 weeks for Kharif, Rabi and hot weather seasons respectively. The developed model has the capability to consider this set of irrigation interval and alternative sets of irrigation interval so that the model could also be used for other regions. The less number of irrigation tends to apply large quantity of water and the soil may not hold this amount of water. This leads to additional losses compared to providing the water according to the water holding capacity of the soil in more number of irrigations. This is the reason as to why the GA derived policy with 19 irrigations provided 19 to 33% more total net benefits than existing policy.

6 Conclusions The yields and total net benefits derived from growing different crops in command area of an irrigation project depend on various factors such as climate, crop growth stage, soil type,

Fig. 15 Water release policy for Waghad right bank canal obtained by elitist GA for existing area (Case III with elitism)

Optimal Reservoir Release Policy Considering Heterogeneity

Fig. 16 Water release policy for Waghad left bank canal obtained by Elitist GA for existing area (Case III with elitism)

temporal and spatial distribution of water which collectively represents the non linear phenomenon. In the situation of water scarcity, it becomes imperative to maximize the total net benefits and find out corresponding water releases. The conventional optimization techniques have limitations in representing the heterogeneity of the command area. The GA based model presented in this paper showed the ability to decide the optimum water releases from the reservoir to the command area by representing the heterogeneity in the system, by way of evaluating the fitness function that represent the complex heterogeneous system appropriately. The application of GA model to the case study of Waghad irrigation project indicated that the total net benefits by adopting GA based water release policy could be increased over the existing water release policy for the same irrigated area by 19%. The GA based model presented in this study also has the capability to optimize the area under irrigation. It is found that the area to be irrigated can be increased to 50% and total net benefits by 31% by using the approach presented in this paper. Introduction of elitism to GA further increased the total net benefits by 2% as elitism in GA retains better solutions in subsequent generations. Thus the proposed irrigation schedules enable the existing farmers to increase their area under irrigation and also increase in benefits.

Table 3 Details of various strategies, water use and total net benefits Sr No Strategy Irrigated area (% ICA) Reservoir releases (thousand m3) Total net benefits (Million rupees) Percentage increase in net benefits

1 2 3 4

Actual water release policy GA based release policy for actual area GA based release policy for optimal area Elitist GA based release policy for optimal area

23% 23% 50% 50%

39628 27570 39117 38343

118.33 140.5 155.15 158.68 19% 31% 33%

A.S. Garudkar et al.

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