Modeling and solving water resources engineering design problems as stochastic programs to account for an uncertain future

The future operations of many engineering systems are affected by the uncertainty of many inputs and demands. To account for these elements of a two-stage stochastic programming, formulation is proposed and illustrated for several engineering problems concerned with water distribution and supply. In all of these applications, the first-stage decisions are the design elements that are to be determined at present. The second-stage decisions involve the future operations, or system response, of the first stage design after realization of the uncertain inputs and demands on the system. Three water resources design problems are presented to illustrate the solution techniques and the advantages of using a stochastic design approach over more traditional approaches.