Abstract
Flushing sediment through a reservoir has been practiced successfully and found to be inexpensive in many cases. However, the great amount of water consumed in the flushing operation might affect the water supply. To satisfy the water demand and water consumed in the flushing operation, two models combining the reservoir simulation model and the sediment flushing model are established. In the reservoir simulation model, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize and determine the flushing operation rule curves. The sediment‐flushing model is developed to estimate the amount of the flushed sediment volume, and the simulated results update the elevation‐storage curve, which can be taken into account in the reservoir simulation model. The models are successfully applied to the Tapu reservoir, which has faced serious sedimentation problems. Based on 36 years historical sequential data, the results show that (i) the simulated flushing operation rule curves model has superior performance, in terms of lower shortage index (SI) and higher flushing efficiency (FE), than that by the original reservoir operation; (ii) the rational and riskless flushing schedule for the Tapu reservoir is suggested to be set within an interval of every 2 or 4 years in the months of May or June. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.