Optimization of Transfers in Urban Water Supply Planning

A number of water supply agencies in the western United States have begun to integrate water transfers into their overall water supply planning, including the use of transferred water as an additional water source with particular cost and availability characteristics. This paper presents applications of two-stage and multistage linear programming for preliminary estimation of the least-cost integration of several water marketing opportunities with water conservation and traditional water supplies. Water marketing opportunities here can include dry-year options and spot-market water transfers.