Optimal water quality management for the Houston Ship Channel.

Savings can be obtained through the application of systems analysis and optimization method to water quality management problems of the Houston Ship Channel. A finite-difference, steady-state mathematical model was employed to predict summer dissolved oxygen profiles resulting from wastewater dicharges and other influence for a one-dimensional, homogeneous estuarine system. Two optimization models, implicit enumeration and a nonlinear programming algorithm, were utilized to find least-cost patterns of waste discharges which would produce specified dissolved oxygen improvement profiles throughout the estuary. An equitable tax and bounty system was developed to compensate for cost inequities arising from the least-cost solutions and to allocate the resulting savings among waste dischargers. These allocated optimum solutions produced moderate to substantial savings, depending on existing estuarine conditions.