A Dynamic Programming Approach to a Class of Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Problems

This paper presents a new approach to modeling, analyzing, and solving a class of environmental control problems dealing with sediment deposition. An efficient dynamic programming algorithm is designed to handle the spatial characteristics of soil movement through a watershed, and its ultimate impact on water channels and/or reservoirs. The model generates "sediment abatement cost frontiers" which summarize the trade-off information needed for watershed planning and management. This information can also be used to identify and target special-problem areas. The paper presents both results on the efficiency of the DP algorithm compared to other methods, and results on the application of the model to real world cases.pollution, watershed, agriculture