Rice paddy has been actively converted into upland crop fields as more profitable upland crop cultivation are encouraged along with the decrease in rice consumption. However, the current water supply system remains mainly for paddy water supply, so research on pipeline water supply for upland cultivation is needed. The objective of this study was to optimize storage tank installation locations for pipeline water supply in reservoir irrigation districts. Five of reservoir irrigation districts were selected as the study sites and gridded of 10×10 m in size. Then genetic algorithm was adopted to evaluate the effects of spatial storage tank allocation on total pipeline cost. The lengths of the main and branch pipelines were considered as the objective cost function for the optimization of storage tank installation. Overall the shorter the branch pipeline and the longer the main pipeline, as the number of storage tanks increase. The minimal pipeline cost, i.e., optimal condition was reached when approximately 10% of the storage tank numbers to total upland plots were installed. The methodology presented in this study can be applied to determine the number and spatial arrangement of storage tanks for upland pipeline irrigation system design.