Nieuw project gestart: Sediment management and Ecology in Rivers with reservoirs
The construction of dam operating regimes always presents a trade-off between power generation water supply and/or flood protection on the one hand and ecological quality of the reservoir and the river downstream of the dam on the other hand. Sedimentation in reservoirs impacts the reservoir purposes, creates shortages in sediment supply downstream and has implications for river morphology and ecology. The use of sediment management practices such as flushing or sluicing to transport more sediment to the downstream has not been fully investigated with respect to their consequences in improving habitat suitability. However with the expansion of building reservoirs in cascading systems sediment management becomes less effective and costly. The synchronization of sediment management in cascading systems needs to be explored further. To assist managers in selecting the most cost-efficient eco-friendly dam and reservoir management regime knowledge and development of tools to diagnose the challenges and to provide the managers with integrated solutions is needed. Deltares together with Jpower are aiming to improve the knowledge related to ecology and sediment management in rivers with reservoirs. A 2D-model (Delft3D) has been developed and coupled with RTC-tool (Real Time Control Tool) in order to mimic the real time dam operation of a single reservoir. This has been used to optimize the sediment management in the reservoir and the river downstream.
The aim of this project is to further deepen and broaden our knowledge and develop our tools (add-ons or coupling) to be able to link the dam operation with respect to ecology and sediment. This allows an assessment of the ecological and sediment implications of dam and reservoir management scenarios to determine the optimal cost-efficient management strategy for green and sustainable development of rivers systems with reservoirs.