sustainability Article Development of an Optimal Model for the Xiluodu-Xiangjiaba Cascade Reservoir System Considering the Downstream Environmental Flow Lingquan Dai 1,2,* , Huichao Dai 2, Haibo Liu 3, Yu Wang 1, Jiali Guo 1, Zhuosen Cai 1 and Chenxi Mi 4 1 College of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China;
[email protected] (Y.W.);
[email protected] (J.G.);
[email protected] (Z.C.) 2 China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 100038, China;
[email protected] 3 China Yangtze Power Corporation, Yichang 443002, China;
[email protected] 4 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Brueckstr 3a, D-39114 Magdeburg Germany;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +86-0717-6392298 Received: 11 December 2019; Accepted: 26 January 2020; Published: 29 January 2020 Abstract: To explore the influence of the Xiluodu-Xiangjiaba cascade reservoir system on the appropriate environmental flow (AEF) of the Jinsha River, a multiobjective optimal cascade reservoir model was established with the aim of maximizing power generation while minimizing the downstream degree of AEF alteration. The AEF was determined using the range of variability approach (RVA). The optimal model was solved using an improved version of NSGA-II called INSGA2-DS. Inflows in typical normal and dry years were selected for optimization. The results show that in a normal year, power generation can be increased by 1.28% compared with that under the current regular operation conditions by prioritizing the maximization of power generation, in which case the degree of AEF alteration will increase by 13.86%.