Dam rule curves should be derived using operation models and considering reservoir storage as well as input flows, which results in better management of reservoir water. In this paper, rule curves of Doroudzan dam in Fars province, has been derived, using standard operating policy (SOP), hedging rules and linear programming. The objective function is water deficit minimization during 2009-2013. Standard operating policies resulted in severe water shortages. To mitigate the severe water shortage in SOP, the hedging policy has been used, which accepts some present delivery deficit to reduce greater shortages in the future. The Genetic Algorithm has been used to find the hedging optimal factors. Finally, the results of SOP and hedging-GA are compared to a linear programming model, based on hedging rules’ ؛ model. Total shortage in hedging-GA was 84. 19 MCM, hedging-LP was 219. 5 MCM and in SOP was 216. 57 MCM. The GA-hedging model by supplying 88. 33% of demands, controlled the amount of shortage as well as the shortage severity. In addition, the average reservoir storage was highest among the three methods. Comparison of the mentioned models using assessment criteria including time reliability, volume reliability and vulnerability showed that hedging-GA model was less vulnerable and more reliable. Therefore, this model performance was better than the other two models.