Adaptive hybrid genetic algorithm for groundwater remediation design

Optimal groundwater remediation design problems are often complex, nonlinear, and computationally intensive. Genetic algorithms allow solution of more complex nonlinear problems than traditional gradient-based approaches, but they are more computationally intensive. One way to improve performance is through inclusion of local search, creating a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA). This paper presents a new self-adaptive HGA (SAHGA) and compares its performance to a nonadaptive hybrid genetic algorithm (NAHGA) and the simple genetic algorithm (SGA) on a groundwater remediation problem. Of the two hybrid algorithms, SAHGA is shown to be far more robust than NAHGA, providing fast convergence across a broad range of parameter settings. For the test problem, SAHGA needs 75% fewer function evaluations than SGA, even with an inefficient local search method. These findings demonstrate that SAHGA has substantial promise for enabling solution of larger-scale problems than was previously possible.