Bi-Objective Optimal Scheduling of Coordinated Water Distribution for Lateral Canal–Drip Irrigation Systems Under Insufficient Irrigation

Coordinated management of drip irrigation water demand and lateral canal supply is a critical strategy for improving water use efficiency in arid irrigation districts; however, under water-deficit conditions, the efficient and equitable allocation of limited canal water among multiple drip irrigation systems remains largely unresolved. This study developed a bi-objective cooperative water allocation and scheduling model for a lateral canal serving 11 subordinate drip irrigation systems. Subject to canal diversion flow balance and total deficit constraints, the model simultaneously minimized (i) the mean coefficient of variation (CV) of water allocation duration within rotation irrigation groups, targeting temporal uniformity, and (ii) the sum of squared deviations of the water supply satisfaction rate across systems, targeting distributional equity. Water demand inputs were derived from a localized FAO-56 Penman–Monteith irrigation schedule for Jinghe County with stage-specific crop coefficients. A hybrid binary–continuous NSGA-II encoding with a dynamic intra-group flow allocation mechanism was employed. For the baseline deficit scenario (Early May, supply-to-demand ratio β = 67.76%), the model partitioned the 11 systems into four rotation groups with a mean CV of 3.15 × 10−3, while the sum of squared deviations of the satisfaction rate decreased from 4.366 under the empirical scheme to 1.50 × 10−4, confining all systems to 67.38–68.45% and eliminating the coexistence of over-supply and complete deprivation (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.001; Cohen’s d = −1.698). The Pareto front revealed a significant efficiency–equity trade-off (Spearman’s ρ = −0.9999), and NSGA-II outperformed SPEA2 by approximately 29-fold and 22-fold in the two objectives. Robustness was confirmed across three deficit scenarios and algorithm parameter sensitivity analyses (CV < 2%). The study offers methodological support for refined water allocation management of terminal canal systems in arid regions.