| In the near future the importance of an efficient and reliable flood
and water management system will keep on increasing, among others due
to the effects of global warming (higher sea levels, more heavy rain
during the spring season, but possibly also drier summers). Especially
in The Netherlands the water management authority is distributed among
several local bodies. Local control actions then include activation of
pumps or locks, filling or draining of water reservoirs, or opening
emergency water storage areas. By cooperating and by coordinating the
local water management actions, and by also taking into account
predictions or forecasts of future rain fall, future droughts, and the
future arrival of increased water flow via rivers, etc. (using various
weather and hydrological sensors and prediction models) a more
efficient flood and water management can be obtained with less risks
and less costs.
The aim of this project is to develop intelligent model-based
predictive control approaches for flood and water management. We will
both consider a more centralized approach and a more decentralized
approach (which would be better suited for countries like The
Netherlands where the water management authority is also
distributed). In this project we will develop and assess new control
methods that will guarantee the basic requirements and "service
levels" to perform adequate flood and water management. As some of
these requirements may sometimes be conflicting, this will result in a
multi-constraint and multi-objective coordination and control task.
In order to attain the goals of the project we will use a
multi-disciplinary approach using methods from systems engineering,
computer science, optimization, operations research, and control
engineering. The coordination and control strategies for flood and
water management developed in this project should result in a much more robust,
reliable, efficient, and less costly operation of the water management
system.
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