Mohammad Modarres - Sharif University of Technology Tehran, Iran.
Hossein Shams - Sharif University of Technology Tehran, Iran.

The existing methods of land leveling design are constructed based on either trial and error procedures or heuristic methods. Therefore, there is no guarantee the solutions are optimal. In this paper, a new model is developed to select a best-fit surface, which has piecewise profiles in both directions. The advantage of applying this surface over planes is its flexibility to fit any natural land and consequently a tremendous cost saving in earth works. It is also advantageous over nonlinear surfaces because of both flexibility and practicality. Furthermore, the model can be solved by analytical methods. Technical restrictions, such as surface slope limit or permissible cut-to-fill ratio are also considered in the model. The objective is to minimize the average depth of soil cuts, but it is also possible to minimize the total volume of earth works. Through some examples, the results are compared with the existing methods.

Land Leveling, Land Grading, Optimization, Piecewise Surface, Monotonically Piecewise, Surface Irrigation