Optimal balance between land development and groundwater conservation in an uncertain coastal environment

An optimization problem for balancing land carrying capacity and groundwater consumption in Central Taiwan was solved using a problem-oriented grey linear programming (POGLP) algorithm. Satisfactory grey solutions were obtained through formulating and solving the proposed POGLP models. These models provide useful information to decision makers regarding the possible ranges of final alternatives when system parameters are highly uncertain. Results indicate that all transferable lands currently used for agriculture and fish cultivation should be converted into other usage. This would conserve the groundwater resources, thereby preventing further land subsidence in that area. Grey sensitivity analyses performed well in the decision-making process when a set of interval regions instead of trend curves were systematically generated without increasing the complexity of the mathematical models.