An optimization method for branching multistage water resource systems

Several optimization procedures have been proposed for the analysis of complex water resource planning problems. One of these techniques, dynamic programming, has been limited in its applicability to river basin systems, because these systems are nonserial and dynamic programming is by nature a serial procedure. Recently developed methods are discussed and illustrated with example problems for decomposing the nonserial river basin system into equivalent serial systems amenable to analysis by the dynamic programming method.