This study presents convex modeling of drainage pumps so that real-time control systems can be implemented to minimize their energy use. A convex model is built based on pump curves and then used in mixed-integer optimization to allow pumps to be turned on or off. It is implemented as an extension to the open source software package RTC-Tools. The formulation is such that the continuous relaxations of the mixed-integer problem are convex, hence branch-and-bound techniques may be used to find a global optimum. The formulation can be used for variable-speed and constant-speed pumps. There are several possible applications, such as optimization of polder systems, pumped-storage systems, or certain water distribution networks. Finally, an example of the drainage pump is presented to compare the method to current methods and show that energy can be saved by using the proposed method.

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In a global change context, governments in Europe want to promote alternative transports as inland navigation or railway instead of road transport. As example, in north of France, a shift of 20% from road transport to these alternative transport solutions is expected by 2050. Reaching this goal requires not only the delivery of new infrastructures and equipment, but also the design of efficient management strategies. By focusing on waterborne transport, it is thus necessary to improve the management of the inland navigation networks particularly the water resource. Indeed, the waterborne transport accommodation is strongly linked to the available water resource. This will be a challenging point in a global change context. The paper deals with the global change impacts on inland navigation networks. It aims at proposing new contributions as compared to past and current results of European projects on climate change and inland navigation. It appeared that the multi-scale modeling approach for inland navigation networks that was proposed during the last TRA Conference in Paris in 2014 is useful to determine the resilience of these networks and their ability to guarantee the navigation conditions during drought and flood periods. The proposed tools are developed to consider two space and time scales. The first approach is used to determine the water quantity that is necessary to accommodate the navigation during half a day, and the second allows the efficient control of the gates to keep the water level of each navigation reach close to its setpoint by rejecting disturbances and compensating the waves due to the lock operations. One example based on the real inland navigation network of the north of France is used to highlight the contributions of the multi-scale modeling approach.@en

It is expected that the global change will have impacts on the rivers, channels and inland navigation networks. These forecasts result from studies of several research laboratories in Europe. Generally, it consists in coupling climate scenarios to hydrological models in order to forecast the water resource state by considering future horizons of several years. This step is relevant only if climate scenario and hydrological models are available. Also, it requires methods dedicated to the reduction of the uncertainties. Otherwise, the resilience study of the inland navigation networks against climate change can be done by designing an integrated model that reproduces their dynamics. This integrated model is able to take into account the influence of watersheds and groundwater. It is based on the daily water volume balance that supply and empty the networks. It allows determining the boundary conditions for the good operation of the inland navigation networks during drought periods. The proposed integrated model is illustrated by considering the inland navigation network of the north of France.@en

Predictive control is one of the most commonly used control methods in a variety of application areas, including hydraulic processes such as water distribution canals for irrigation. This article presents the design and application of predictive control for the water discharge entering into an irrigation canal located in Spain. First, a discrete time linear model of the process is described and its parameters are experimentally identified. The model is well validated within the usual canal operating range and is used to formulate a predictive control law with an incremental formulation. Finally, experimental and simulation results are presented in which predictive control has shown better performance than a well-tuned proportional, integral and derivative controller to automatically manage demanded water discharges.

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