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Well Field Management Using Multi-Objective Optimization

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Abstract

Efficient management of groundwater resources is important because groundwater availability is limited and, locally, groundwater quality has been impaired because of contamination. Here we present a multi-objective optimization framework for improving the management of a water works that operates with infiltration basins, injection wells and abstraction wells. The two management objectives are to minimize the amount of water needed for infiltration and to minimize the risk of getting contaminated water into the drinking water wells. The management is subject to a daily demand fulfilment constraint. Two different optimization methods are tested. Constant scheduling where decision variables are held constant during the time of optimization, and sequential scheduling where the optimization is performed stepwise for daily time steps. The latter is developed to work in a real-time situation. Case study optimization results are presented for the Hardhof water works in Zurich, Switzerland. It is found that both methods perform better than the historical management. The constant scheduling performs best in fairly stable conditions, whereas the sequential optimization performs best in extreme situations with heavy rainfall or large changes in water demand.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly founded by the Danish Strategic Research Council, Sustainable Energy and Environment Programme, Contract no. 09-061392. The authors would like to thank Gero Bauser for sharing information and knowledge about Hardhof water works.

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Author notes

  1. Annette K. Hansen

    Present address: Rambøll Danmark, Hannemanns Allé 53, 2300, København S, Denmark

  2. Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen

    Present address: Agrosphere, ICG-4, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425, Jülich, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Annette K. Hansen, Peter Bauer-Gottwein & Dan Rosbjerg

  2. Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang Paulistrasse 15, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

    Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen

  3. DHI Water-Environment-Health, 2970, Hørsholm, Denmark

    Henrik Madsen

  4. Water Supply of Zurich (WVZ), Hardhof 9, 8023, Zurich, Switzerland

    Hans-Peter Kaiser

Authors
  1. Annette K. Hansen
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  2. Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen
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  3. Peter Bauer-Gottwein
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  4. Henrik Madsen
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  5. Dan Rosbjerg
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  6. Hans-Peter Kaiser
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Correspondence to Annette K. Hansen.

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Hansen, A.K., Hendricks Franssen, HJ., Bauer-Gottwein, P. et al. Well Field Management Using Multi-Objective Optimization. Water Resour Manage 27, 629–648 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-012-0125-y

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