Yang, Y.; Wu, J.; Lin, J.; Wang, J.; Zhou, Z., and Wu, J., 2018. An efficient simulation–optimization approach for controlling seawater intrusion. In: Wang, D. and Guido-Aldana, P.A. (eds.), Select Proceedings from the 3rd International Conference on Water Resource and Environment (WRE2017). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 84, pp. 10–18. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The management of freshwater stored in coastal aquifers involves decisions regarding not only the sustainable utilization and exploration of optimal coastal groundwater resources but also the designing of optimal strategies for controlling seawater intrusion (SI). Simultaneously optimizing pumping operation, the extent of SI, and design of mitigation measures is a challenging task because mitigating SI has become imperative for groundwater management of coastal aquifers. This study proposed a simulation-optimization framework (SWT-NPTSGA) to search Pareto-optimal solutions for estimating the optimal pumping and artificial recharge schemes under complicated SI constraints. The SWT-NPTSGA is based on a combination of a new hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, the niched Pareto tabu search combined with a genetic algorithm, and the numerical variable-density groundwater flow and transport model. Three different management scenarios, pumping only, injection only, and combined pumping and injection (P&I), were designed in a synthetic application to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed methodology. The results showed that the P&I scenario could generate comprehensive information for multi-objective decision-making. The SI mitigation measures by artificial recharge could offer the most groundwater supply and the least area of seawater intrusion. The optimization results showed the potential feasibility of the proposed methodology for managing groundwater resources and controlling SI in coastal aquifers.