Evaluation of Some Intelligent Method in Optimal Operation of Multireservoires

Optimal operation of reservoirs is one of the ways of dealing with water management issues and encountering with inappropriate spatial and temporal distribution of water. In this research, a metaheuristic algorithm called Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA), has been developed in MATLAB software, with the purpose of optimal operation of a Multi-reservoirs system (Golestan and Voshmgir dams) located at Gorganrood Basin (North of Iran), fora five year period (from 2007-2008 to 2011-2012). At first, the performance of the developed model was investigated through several standard test functions. Next, the developed model is applied for monthly allocation of Gorganrood Multi-reservoirs system. The objective function was defined as the “minimization of the total deficit for the study period”.In order to performance evaluation of the developed model, two criteria of reliability (temporal and volume) and vulnerability have been used. The results of the developed model were compared with those of the other metaheuristic algorithms including Harmony Search Algorithm (HS) and Imperialist CompetitiveAlgorithm (ICA).The WCA, HS and ICA were capable to supply 97.73, 85.57 and 93.17 percent of Golestan dam water demand, respectively. For the Voshmgir dam, the mentioned models could supply 97.06, 86.88 and 93.44 percent of water demand, in same order. The temporal reliability (α=0.9) for WCA, HS and ICA models, was obtained 95, 25and 50 percent for Golestan dam and 91.67, 38.33 and 65 percent for Voshmgir dam, respectively, revealed that the WCA was superior in optimal allocation of Multi-reservoirs system.