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. 2025 Aug 18;15(1):30191.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-15001-z.

Optimize multi-objective transformation rules of water-sediment regulation for cascade reservoirs in the Lower Yellow River of China

Kunhui Hong  1 , Aixing Ma  2   3 , Wei Zhang  1 , Mingxiong Cao  4   5
Affiliations

Optimize multi-objective transformation rules of water-sediment regulation for cascade reservoirs in the Lower Yellow River of China

Kunhui Hong et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The Yellow River is characterized by water scarcity and high sediment load, leading to significant sedimentation issues in reservoirs. This severely restricts normal operation and contributes to frequent flooding, making it one of the most challenging problems in the Yellow River management. This study focuses on the operation of the Sanmenxia and Xiaolangdi cascade reservoirs, developing a multi-objective model (hydropower generation and sediment transport) and two single-objective models (hydropower generation only and sediment transport only). An innovative method (ESS-NSGA-II) is proposed, combining Efficient Search Space (ESS) with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to optimize cascade reservoirs operation. We analyzed the impact and transformation rules of multiple objectives under various optimization schemes. The results indicate a non-linear competitive relationship between the hydropower generation and sediment transport. An extreme case indicates an increase of 0.49 billion kWh in hydropower generation (4.08% increase) leads to greatly reduce the amount of sediment transport (96.25% decrease), while still meeting both water supply and flood control. The findings also indicate that Xiaolangdi reservoir plays a dominant role in the operation of the two reservoirs. The impact of different schemes is mainly reflected in the variation in Xiaolangdi's discharge, with the sediment transport maximization scheme offering greater flood control potential. Furthermore, the efficiency of sediment transport is closely related to hydropower generation: when hydropower is below 12.28 billion kWh, the conversion efficiency from hydropower generation to sediment transport increases significantly. This research reveals the transformation rules between multi-objectives in cascade reservoir operation, providing a scientific basis for water and sediment regulation in the Yellow River Basin and offering valuable insights into prolonging reservoir lifespans.

Keywords: Efficient search space-non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (ESS- NSGA-II); Multi-objective optimization; The lower yellow river; Transformation rules; Water-sediment regulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The research flowchart.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Map of study area and location of study reservoirs. (This figure is completed by using the QGIS 3.40 L software(https://qgis.org), DEM data are obtained from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.gscloud.cn)).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Factors influencing reservoir sediment flushing.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Water level constraints of SMX and XLD reservoirs.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Optimization of the efficient search space in different periods.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Water levels of the Sanmenxia reservoir of two single-objective models.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Hydropower output of the Xiaolangdi reservoir of two single-objective models.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Water levels of the Xiaolangdi reservoir of two single-objective models.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Hydropower output of the Sanmenxia reservoir of two single-objective models.
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Pareto-Front of sediment transport and hydropower generation.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
The acceleration of sediment transport with variations in hydropower generation.
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