Generating Robust Solutions: A Water Quality Management Example

An approach is presented for.analyzing a water quality management problem that considefs multiple pollutant transport responses within an optimization model formulation. The multiple pollutant transport responses represent different possible scenarios that could occur in the water body. Solutions to the optimization model are obtained that are robust with respect to the actual pollutant transport response. The desirable characteristics of the solutions obtained to this waste load allocation problem are demonstrated through the application of the approach to a case study based on the Willamette River in Oregon.