Development of Simulation-Optimization Model for Protection of Flood Areas

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Abstract

The man’s craving for water has inspired many civilizations to be formed near rivers. The social and economic destructive consequences of flood in human societies are considered undeniable facts. Today human trespasses on riversides and also vegetation destruction have caused increase in flood damages. These factors lead to be not only vital and financial damages, but also damages such as soil erosion in upstream and soil deposition in downstream. This research aims to decrease flood damages using structural methods as well as investigating and finding proper locations to construct protective levees in high risk areas via studying torrent area of riversides. In this research, the Genetic Algorithm (GA) are applied to maximize the benefit of flood control and also to minimize the cost of protective levees construction. Therefore, the fitness function of the research is defined to maximize net benefit of the project. The objective of the present paper is to evaluate this method for decreasing flood damages in the “Sarm” and “Khoor Abad” rivers, located in Qom province in Iran. The proper location and height of levees are defined whether the factor of “the level of saved losses to the region by constructing protective levees minus the cost of constructing protective levees” is maximized. The results indicate that by constructing protective levees the rate of damages reduces up to 99% in comparison with a non-constructed protective levees scenario.

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Volume 27, Issue 3 - Serial Number 3
September and October 2013
Pages 462-471
  • Receive Date: 17 September 2013
  • Accept Date: 17 September 2013
  • First Publish Date: 17 September 2013