An integrated spatial multi-objective analysis framework for water allocation in large irrigation districts

With the economic development in the irrigation districts, water use conflicts have become more and more urgent, especially in the arid and semi-arid region. Water allocation of large-scale irrigation is a complex problem which should be economically efficient and environmentally considerable as well as socially fair, and has received considerable attention these years. However, these objectives are in conflict with one another in their spatial locations. The integration of spatial multi-objective analysis with GIS has a good potential in solving the spatial multi-objective problems. In this study, a spatial framework was formulated to integrate various spatial data and attribute data, based on which, water allocation model was developed according to the water system's characteristics and finally a user interface was developed to couple models and GIS.