Management of water supply systems from interbasin transfers: case study in the Brazilian semiarid region

This paper develops a discharge allocation model for public water supply for a set of communities, considering available and planned reservoirs and interbasin transfer projects. Reservoir operation rules were defined for maximum water withdrawals in function of the storage volume over a period of 45 years, and then the discharges to be transported from the different sources to 18 locations were defined, minimizing the costs. Generalized Reduced Gradient and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms were used in the optimization processes. The model was applied in the Agreste region of the state of Pernambuco, Brazilian semiarid. This region has the worst water balance in the entire country and three interbasin water transfer systems are under construction. Due to the interconnection among the systems, it will be possible to supply the communities from one or another source. The results showed that the optimized operation of the reservoirs can minimize water transfer and costs.