WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications
Print ISSN: 1790-0832, E-ISSN: 2224-3402
Volume 14, 2017
Genetic Algorithms in Polluted Coastal Aquifers’ Management
Authors: ,
Abstract: The paper discusses optimal management of a theoretical coastal aquifer, providing water for drinking and/or irrigation purposes, which is threatened by seawater intrusion from the coast and by non-conservative pollutant plumes from the inland. It follows authors’ previous work that dealt with the minimization of the aquifer’s management cost, namely optimization of Pump-And-Treat and Hydraulic Control techniques in order to pump a given flow-rate of fresh water, without compromising the aquifer’s sustainability. Optimization, in this paper, on the other hand, entails maximization of the fresh water pumping flow-rate, provided that no well is polluted and no seawater intrusion occurs (Water Supply problem). Practically, the goal is: find the flow rates of existing abstraction wells and the fittest locations and flow rates of additional wells, in order to pump the highest total fresh water flow-rate, without further sea intrusion. An established robust computational tool, "OptiManage", entirely created by the authors, able to address the combined pollution-salinization problem, is used. OptiManage uses a binary genetic algorithm including elitism and a complex penalty function. The need to balance between computational volume and accuracy dictates the simulation of the groundwater flow field through a simplified surrogate 2D field, using a boundary element method, while a particle tracking code simulates the advective mass transport (pollution spread and seawater intrusion).
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Keywords: genetic algorithms, coastal aquifer, groundwater pollution, seawater intrusion, maximum water supply, boundary elements, particle tracking
Pages: 190-200
WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1790-0832 / 2224-3402, Volume 14, 2017, Art. #21