Solution of groundwater management problems using harmony search algorithm

Abstract

Groundwater is not only an important component of water resources, but also a reliable source of fresh water for domestic and industrial uses. However, due to climate change and the fast population growth, the quality and quantity of groundwater resources have been continuously decreasing. Therefore, sustainable management strategies should be developed for groundwater systems by decision makers. This chapter provides a brief review dealing with the use of Harmony Search (HS) optimization algorithm for solving the groundwater management problems. Review results indicate that HS can successively solve the groundwater management problems and provides identical or better results than the other non-heuristic and heuristic optimization algorithms. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.