An Impulse Control Approach to Dike Height Optimization

Abstract

This paper determines the optimal timing of dike heightenings as well as the corresponding optimal dike heightenings to protect against floods. To derive the optimal policy we design an algorithm based on the Impulse Control Maximum Principle. In this way the paper presents one of the first real life applications of the Impulse Control Maximum Principle developed by Blaqui`ere. We show that the proposed Impulse Control approach performs better than Dynamic Programming with respect to computational time. This is caused by the fact that Impulse Control does not need discretization in time.

Keywords: Impulse Control Maximum Principle, Optimal Control, flood prevention, dikes, cost-benefit analysis

JEL Classification: C61, D61, H54, Q54