A Quantity-Quality Model for Inter-basin Water Transfer System Using Game Theoretic and Virtual Water Approaches

A new approach is developed based on cooperative games and virtual water concept for quantity-quality assessment of water transfer projects. It is argued that a water transfer project can be executed to satisfy both economic and environmental objectives and needs. In fact, the proposed model evaluate economic, equity, and environment criteria in order to lead to sustainable development. First, an optimization model with economic objective is developed based on virtual water concept that maximizes the net benefit of the inter-basin water transfer. Then, to meet water quality requirements, the impact of decreasing the flow in a sending basin is estimated by using a virtual water quality concept and Nash Equilibrium. Finally, to achieve equity and to retrieve sufficient incentives for water users, cooperative game theory approaches are utilized for the reallocation of net benefits. Effectiveness of the proposed methodology has been examined by applying it to a large scale case study of an inter-basin water transfer in central part of Iran, from the Solakan to the Rafsanjan basins. The results reveal that the proposed methodology could be used as an effective tool for sustainable development in the inter-basin water allocation management with resolving confliction aim with the physical and environmental constraints by considering virtual water concept. In addition, by using cooperative game theory, the net benefit of the project has been realized to be twice the initial allocation.