Chen et al. (2026) A coupled surface water-groundwater multi-objective optimization framework for coordinated water-ecosystem-agriculture management in arid inland river basin

Identification

• Journal: Hydrology and earth system sciences
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-06-22
• Authors: Danhong Chen, Xiankui Zeng, Dongwei GUI, Dong Wang, Jianmin Wu
• DOI: 10.5194/hess-30-3741-2026

Research Groups

• Key Laboratory of Surficial Geochemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, China
• Cele National Station of Observation and Research for Desert-Grassland Ecosystem, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China

Short Summary

This study develops a coupled surface water-groundwater multi-objective optimization framework to achieve coordinated management of water resources, ecosystems, and agriculture in arid inland river basins. The framework is applied to the mainstream area of the Tarim River Basin, where significant trade-offs exist among multiple objectives within the water-ecosystem-agriculture system.

Objective

• Develop a comprehensive decision-oriented framework that combines a coupled surface water-groundwater simulation with a multi-objective optimization approach to achieve coordinated management of water resources, ecosystems, and agriculture in arid inland river basins.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: The study focuses on the mainstream area of the Tarim River Basin, which covers approximately 40,956 km2.
• Temporal Scale: The study period spans from 2002 to 2021.

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • GSFLOW-based hydrological model for simulating interactions between surface water and groundwater.
  • Snowmelt runoff model (SRM) for capturing snow and glacier melt processes occurring in the mountainous headwater areas of the basin.
  • Multi-objective water-ecosystem-agriculture (WEA) optimization model for coordinating water allocation among water resources, ecosystems, and agricultural production.
• Data sources:
  • Topography, land use, climate, hydrogeology, and socio-economic information.

Main Results

• The results indicate that significant trade-offs exist among objectives within the water-ecosystem-agriculture system.
• Solutions with higher economic benefits are generally accompanied by reduced ecological water supply and increased nitrogen loads.
• The spatial heterogeneity of the basin necessitates the adoption of differentiated management strategies, where upstream areas can sustain higher levels of agricultural production while midstream and downstream areas require priority allocation to ecological water use.

Contributions

• This study provides a comprehensive decision-oriented framework that combines a coupled surface water-groundwater simulation with a multi-objective optimization approach.
• The framework is applied to the mainstream area of the Tarim River Basin, where significant trade-offs exist among multiple objectives within the water-ecosystem-agriculture system.

Funding

• This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42077013) and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDY-SSW-DQC008).

Citation

@article{Chen2026coupled,
  author = {Chen, Danhong and Zeng, Xiankui and GUI, Dongwei and Wang, Dong and Wu, Jianmin},
  title = {A coupled surface water-groundwater multi-objective optimization framework for coordinated water-ecosystem-agriculture management in arid inland river basin},
  journal = {Hydrology and earth system sciences},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/hess-30-3741-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3741-2026}
}