Modeling and Solving of Joint Flood Control Operation of Large-Scale Reservoirs: A Case Study in the Middle and Upper Yangtze River in China

Flood disasters are the most frequent and most severe natural disasters in most countries around the world. Reservoir flood operation is an important method to reduce flood losses. When there are multiple reservoirs and flood control points in the basin, it is difficult to use reservoirs separately to fully realize their flood control potential. However, the multi-reservoir joint flood control operation is a multi-objective, multi-constrained, multi-dimensional, nonlinear, and strong-transition feature decision-making problem, and these characteristics make modeling and solving very difficult. Therefore, a large-scale reservoirs flood control operation modeling method is innovatively proposed, and Dynamic Programming (DP) combined with the Progressive Optimality Algorithm (POA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) methods, DP-POA-PSO, are designed to efficiently solve the optimal operation model. The middle and upper Yangtze River was chosen as a case study. Six key reservoirs in the basin were considered, including Xiluodu (XLD), Xiangjiaba (XJB), Pubugou (PBG), Tingzikou (TZK), Goupitan (GPT), and Three Gorges (TG). Studies have shown that DP-POA-PSO can effectively solve the optimal operation model. Compared with the current operation method, the joint flood control optimal operation makes the flood control point reach the flood control standard, moreover, in the event of the flood with a return period of 1000 years, Jingjiang, the most critical flood control point of the Yangtze River, does not require flood diversion, and the volume of flood diversion in Chenglingji is also greatly reduced.