ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Urban Water-Planning Support System
Using Fuzzy Logic and Metaheuristic
Algorithms Under Sustainability Criteria
More details
Hide details
1
Dirección de Investigación, Innovación y Posgrado, Universidad Politécnica de Pachuca, Carretera Pachuca – Cd.
Sahagún Km 20, Ex-Hacienda de Santa Bárbara, Zempoala, HGO, 43830, México
2
Universidad Politécnica Metropolitana de Hidalgo, Ex Hacienda San Javier, Tolcayuca 1009, Tolcayuca,
HGO, 43860, México
Submission date: 2025-06-21
Final revision date: 2025-11-13
Acceptance date: 2026-01-07
Online publication date: 2026-03-04
Corresponding author
Jorge A. Ruiz-Vanoye
Dirección de Investigación, Innovación y Posgrado, Universidad Politécnica de Pachuca, Carretera Pachuca – Cd.
Sahagún Km 20, Ex-Hacienda de Santa Bárbara, Zempoala, HGO, 43830, México
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
This article presents the development and implementation of an urban water planning decisionsupport
system that integrates fuzzy logic techniques and a set of 25 metaheuristic algorithms.
The model is designed to operate under an environment characterised by multiple operational,
environmental, regulatory, and infrastructure constraints, which are incorporated through dynamic
penalties in the objective function. Fuzzy logic is used to transform imprecise critical variables, such
as source availability, sectoral demands, and operating costs, into CRISP inputs usable by optimisation
algorithms. The methodology allows for the evaluation and comparison of the performance of each
heuristic in terms of computational efficiency, solution quality, and feasibility under realistic urban
conditions. The results show significant differences in accuracy, robustness, and convergence times,
providing a quantitative basis for the selection of sustainable, resilient, and adaptive water management
strategies in the context of smart cities. Finally, future lines of research are proposed, focusing on
algorithmic hybridisation, the incorporation of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), and integration
with real-time water governance platforms.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
REFERENCES (57)
1.
FAO. The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2021 - Systems at Breaking Point; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Rome, Italy, 1, 2021.
3.
FIGUEIREDO I., ESTEVES P., CABRITA P. Water Wise - A digital water solution for smart cities and water management entities. Procedia Computer Science, 181, 897, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proc....
4.
KAMBALIMATH S., DEKA P.C. A basic review of fuzzy logic applications in hydrology and water resources. Applied Water Science, 10 (191), 1, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201....
5.
KRISHNAN S.R., NALLAKARUPPAN M.K., CHENGODEN R., KOPPU S., IYAPPARAJA M., SADHASIVAM J., SETHURAMAN S. Smart water resource management using artificial intelligence - A review. Sustainability, 14 (20), 13384, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su1420....
6.
BOURAMDANE A.-A. Optimal Water Management Strategies: Paving the Way for Sustainability in Smart Cities. Smart Cities, 6 (5), 2849, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.3390/smartc....
7.
QUON H., JIANG S. Decision making for implementing non-traditional water sources: A review of challenges and potential solutions. npj Clean Water, 6, 56, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545....
8.
ERDOĞDU A., DAYI F., YILDIZ F., YANIK A., GANJI F. Combining fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms to optimize cost, time and quality in modern agriculture. Sustainability, 17 (7), 2829, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su1707....
9.
DÍAZ-PARRA O., AGUILAR-ORTIZ J., RUIZ-VANOYE J.A., TREJO-MACOTELA F.R., BERNÁBE-LORANCA M.B. Optimizing Water Management in Urban Ecosystems: A Holistic Model for the Sustainable Integration of Drinking Water, Rainwater, and Wastewater Systems. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.15244/pjoes....
10.
SALIMIAN F., GHIASSI R. A hybrid method for designing sustainable river monitoring networks using fuzzy logic site selection and genetic algorithm optimization. Water Resources Management, 39 (1), 227, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269....
11.
XU Y., HUANG G.H., XU L. A fuzzy robust optimization model for waste allocation planning under uncertainty. Environmental Engineering Science, 31 (10), 556, 2014.
https://doi.org/10.1089/ees.20....
12.
PÉREZ MARTÍN M.Á. Understanding nutrient loads from catchment and eutrophication in a salt lagoon: The Mar Menor case. Water, 15 (20), 3569, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.3390/w15203....
13.
AGUILAR ORTIZ S., SALGADO PINEDA P., MARCO PALLARÉS J., PASCUAL J.C., VEGA D., SOLER J., McKENNA P.J. Abnormalities in gray matter volume in patients with borderline personality disorder and their relation to lifetime depression: A VBM study. PLoS One, 13 (2), 0191946, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journa....
14.
GUPTA I., GUPTA A., KHANNA P. Genetic algorithm for optimization of water distribution systems. Environmental Modelling & Software, 14 (5), 437, 1999.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-....
16.
LI Z., LIN X., ZHANG Q., LIU H.-L. Evolution strategies for continuous optimization: A survey of the state-of-the-art. Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, 56, 100694, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.swev....
17.
CORNE D., LONES M.A. Evolutionary Algorithms. In: Martí R., Panos P., Resende M. (eds) Handbook of Heuristics. Springer, Cham, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-....
20.
DORIGO M., MANIEZZO V., COLORNI A. Ant system: Optimization by a colony of cooperating agents. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part B: Cybernetics, 26 (1), 29, 1996.
https://doi.org/10.1109/3477.4....
21.
KENNEDY J., EBERHART R. Particle swarm optimization. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, 4, 1942, 1995.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICNN.1....
22.
STORN R., PRICE K. Differential evolution - A simple and efficient heuristic for global optimization over continuous spaces. Journal of Global Optimization, 11 (4), 341, 1997.
https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008....
23.
KARABOGA D., BASTURK B. A powerful and efficient algorithm for numerical function optimization: Artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. Journal of Global Optimization, 39 (3), 459, 2007.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898....
25.
WARNARS H.L.H.S., WARNARS L.S., UTOMO W.H., DOUCET A., RAMADHAN A., SISWANTO T. Memetic Algorithm Small Survey For 2019 Published Papers, 2024 3rd International Conference on Creative Communication and Innovative Technology (ICCIT), Tangerang, Indonesia, 1, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCIT6....
26.
GLOVER F. A template for scatter search and path relinking. In Artificial Evolution; Hao J.K., Lutton E., Ronald E., Schoenauer M., Snyers D., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Germany, 13, 1998.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb002....
27.
TIAN Z., ZHANG C. An Improved Harmony Search Algorithm and Its Application in Function Optimization. Journal of Information Processing Systems, 14 (5), 1237, 2018.
28.
KUMAR D., GANDHI B.G.R., BHATTACHARJYA R.K. Firefly Algorithm and Its Applications in Engineering Optimization. In: Bennis F., Bhattacharjya R. (eds) Nature-Inspired Methods for Metaheuristics Optimization. Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies, vol 16. Springer, Cham, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-....
29.
YANG X.S., DEB S. Cuckoo search via Lévy flights. Proceedings of the World Congress on Nature & Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC 2009), 210, 2010.
https://doi.org/10.1109/NABIC.....
30.
WANG Y., GAO S., YU Y., CAI Z., WANG Z. A gravitational search algorithm with hierarchy and distributed framework. Knowledge Based Systems, 218, 106877, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knos....
32.
YANG X.S. A new metaheuristic bat inspired algorithm. In Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NICSO 2010); González J.R., Pelta D.A., Cruz C., Terrazas G., Krasnogor N., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Germany, 65, 2010.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-....
33.
SHERINOV Z., UNVEREN A. Multi-objective imperialistic competitive algorithm with multiple nondominated sets for the solution of global optimization problems. Soft Computing, 22 (24), 8273, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500....
34.
ABUALIGAH L., ABU-DALHOUM E., IKOTUN A.M., ABU ZITAR R., ALSOUD A.R., KHODADADI N., EZUGWU A.E., HANANDEH E.S., JIA H. Teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm: analysis study and its application. Elsevier BV., 59, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0....
35.
JALILI S. Cultural Algorithms (CAs). In: Cultural Algorithms. Engineering Optimization: Methods and Applications. Springer, Singapore, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-98....
38.
SUN J., XU W., FENG B. A global search strategy of quantum behaved particle swarm optimization. Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems, 111, 2004.
39.
MIRJALILI S. Dragonfly algorithm: A new meta-heuristic optimization technique for solving single objective, discrete, and multi objective problems. Neural Computing and Applications, 27 (4), 1053, 2016.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521....
40.
CHHIPI‐SHRESTHA G., HEWAGE K., SADIQ R. Selecting sustainability indicators for small to medium sized urban water systems using fuzzy‐electre. Water Environment Research, 89 (3), 238, 2017.
https://doi.org/10.2175/106143....
41.
FILHO O.R.D.C., LIMA W.G., OLIVEIRA R.F.A.P.D. Smart sustainable cities: using a fuzzy inference system to determine their global score. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, 1, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.34257/GJSFR....
42.
LI H., XIA Q., WANG L., MA Y. Sustainability assessment of urban water environment treatment public-private partnership projects using fuzzy logic. Journal of Engineering Design and Technology, 18 (5), 1251, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-1....
43.
LINDSAY J., ROGERS B., CHURCH E., GUNN A.W., HAMMER K., DEAN A.J., FIELDING K.S. The role of community champions in long-term sustainable urban water planning. Water, 11 (3), 476, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.3390/w11030....
44.
RUSTUM R., KURICHIYANIL A., FORREST S., SOMMARIVA C., ADELOYE A., ZOUNEMAT‐KERMANI M., SCHOLZ M. Sustainability ranking of desalination plants using mamdani fuzzy logic inference systems. Sustainability, 12 (2), 631, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su1202....
45.
NILASHI M., CAVALLARO F., MARDANI A., ZAVADSKAS E.K., SAMAD S., IBRAHIM O. Measuring country sustainability performance using ensembles of neuro-fuzzy technique. Sustainability, 10 (8), 2707, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su1008....
46.
TAN Y., SHUAI C., JIAO L., SHEN L. Adaptive neurofuzzy inference system approach for urban sustainability assessment: a China case study. Sustainable Development, 26 (6), 749, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.174....
47.
REN J., REN X., SHEN W., MAN Y., LIN R., LIU Y., DONG L. Industrial system prioritization using the sustainability‐interval‐index conceptual framework with life‐cycle considerations. Aiche Journal, 66 (6), 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.16....
48.
ZUBAIDI S.L., AL‑BUGHARBEE H., ALATTABI A.W., RIDHA H.M., HASHIM K., AL‑ANSARI N., YASEEN Z.M. Forecasting urban water demand using different hybrid‑based metaheuristic algorithms inspire for extracting artificial neural network hyperparameters. Scientific Reports, 14 (1), 24042, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598....
49.
BELLINI F., BARZEGAR Y., BARZEGAR A., MARRONE S., VERDE L., PISANI P. Sustainable Water Quality Evaluation Based on Cohesive Mamdani and Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System in Tivoli (Italy). Sustainability, 17 (2), 579, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su1702....
50.
ROBATI M., REZAEI F. Evaluation and ranking of urban sustainability based on sustainability assessment by fuzzy evaluation model. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 1, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762....
51.
LI Y., HE N., LI H., ZHANG Y. Sustainability assessment of urban water public‐private partnership projects with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. Jawra Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 60 (6), 1209, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1....
52.
ÇALIŞKAN B. Integrated and sustainable performance evaluation of urban rail transit systems using fuzzy sustainability index. Decision Making and Analysis, 73, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.55976/dma.2....
53.
TORDECILLA R., COPADO-MÉNDEZ P., PANADERO J., QUINTERO-ARAÚJO C., MONTOYA‐TORRES J., JUAN Á. Combining heuristics with simulation and fuzzy logic to solve a flexible-size location routing problem under uncertainty. Algorithms, 14 (2), 45, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.3390/a14020....
54.
TAVOOSI J., MOHAMMADZADEH A., JERMSITTIPARSERT K. A review on type-2 fuzzy neural networks for system identification. Soft Computing, 25 (10), 7197, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500....
55.
CASTILLO O., PERAZA C., OCHOA P., AMADORANGULO L., MELÍN P., PARK Y., GEEM Z. Shadowed type-2 fuzzy systems for dynamic parameter adaptation in harmony search and differential evolution for optimal design of fuzzy controllers. Mathematics, 9 (19), 2439, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.3390/math91....
56.
IBEH C., SMITH J., KUMAR R. SEFLAME‑CM: A spatially explicit framework combining community input and fuzzy logic for water resource conflict management. Sustainability, 17 (5), 2315, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su1705....
57.
FELT V., KACKER S., KUSTERS J., PENDERGAST J., CAHOY K. Fast ocean front detection using deep learning edge detection models. TechRxiv, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.36227/techr....