Adjustable Robust Optimization for Multi-Period Water Allocation in Droughts Under Uncertainty

Optimal water resource allocation can go some way to overcoming water deficiencies; however, its achievement is complex due to conflicting hierarchies and uncertainties, such as water availability (WA) and water demand (WD). This study develops a robust water withdrawal scheme for drought regions that can balance the trade-offs between the sub-areas and water use participants, ensure sustainable regional system development, and guarantee robust solutions for future uncertainties. A bi-level affinely adjustable robust counterpart (AARC) programming framework was developed in which the regional authority as the leader allocates water to the sub-areas to maximize the intra- and intergenerational equity, and the sub-areas as the followers allocate water to their respective water departments to maximize their economic benefits and minimize water shortages. A case study from Neijiang, China, is given to illustrate the applicability and feasibility of this framework. The novelty of this study is to propose a sustainable bi-level AARC regional water allocation framework which integrates intra- and inter-generational equity of regional water use and priority rules reflected by goal preference programming between water departments under uncertainties of WA and WD simultaneously in water deficient regions.