Development and Application of the Bat Algorithm for Optimizing the Operation of Reservoir Systems

Optimal utilization of water resources by means of water transfers and reservoirs in semiarid and arid regions is used to mitigate natural water scarcity. In this context, metaheuristic algorithms for optimum reservoir system operation have become an attractive alternative to traditional operations research algorithms such as linear programming (LP), nonlinear programming (NLP), and dynamic programming (DP). This paper presents the metaheuristic bat algorithm (BA) and its application to the optimal operation of the Karoun-4 reservoir system in Iran and to a hypothetical four-reservoir system. The merits of the performance of the BA in the optimization of reservoir operation are demonstrated by comparison to those of LP, NLP, and genetic algorithm (GA) in terms of the convergence to global optima and of the variance of results about global optima for reservoir optimization problems. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.