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Indexed by:Journal Papers

Date of Publication:2019-10-01

Journal:WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Included Journals:EI、SCIE

Volume:33

Issue:13

Page Number:4637-4651

ISSN No.:0920-4741

Key Words:Conflict evaluation; Decision making; Many-objective analysis; Reservoir operation; Tradeoff analysis

Abstract:There exists complicated competitive and synergetic relationships among the objectives in the multi-objective problems, which is hard to quantify and brings difficulty for decision making. Existing studies focus on the tradeoff analysis qualitatively and are lack of quantitative calculation. This study proposes a tradeoff analysis index called Conflict Evaluation Index (CEI) for quantitative many-objective conflict evaluation and tradeoff analysis using Pareto optimal solutions. The index is applied into a six-objective reservoir operation problem. In the application, a reservoir operation optimization model including two electricity objectives and four water supply objectives is established and Pareto optimal solutions are obtained with epsilon-NSGAII. CEI values of any two objectives are calculated under four water demand scenarios. The results show that the conflict degrees among six objectives become more fierce with the increase of water demands and the major conflict is shifted from electricity objectives to water supply objectives. Besides, the CEI values are applied to determine the objective weights and recommend the best solutions. Objectives of intensive conflict are assigned a large weight, and solutions with better performance in those objectives are recommended. The application illustrates that the proposed index is rational and can be instrumental for insightful many-objective analysis and informed decision making.