OPTIMIZED AQUIFER MANAGEMENT, USING LINEAR PROGRAMMING.AN APPLICATION TO THE AGIA VARVARA AQUIFER, DRAMA, GREECE

The present research analyzes the behavior of Agia Varvara aquifer in Drama, Greece.
A comprehensive and complete simulation-management combination model is applied,
capable of calculating the water mass balance of the aquifer and defining the optimal
management solution. In order to simulate the aquifer, a finite difference model is used.
By applying this model and the Response Matrix Method, the management of the aquifer
is achieved. Once the simulation of the aquifer is finished, the Linear Programming
analysis is performed to obtain the optimal values of piezometric heads and flow rates,
imposed to the system on monthly basis, in order to meet the demand of water at the
lowest cost. The resulting piezometric heads are compared with the initial ones, enabling
scenarios about the maximum and minimum drawdown, and providing the critical
months of irrigation. The Linear Programming is used to facilitate the operation of
systems, maximizing the total amount of pumped water, under a given set of constraints.