Model-Based Assessment of Water, Food, and Energy Trade-Offs in a Cascade of Multipurpose Reservoirs: Case Study of the Sesan Tributary of the Mekong River
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 141, Issue 1
Abstract
The Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia is undergoing rapid development in the exploitation of its water resources. Although hydropower is the most dominant driver for water development, the possibilities for multipurpose reservoirs have been increasingly discussed but not well studied. The authors assess the potential benefits and negative impacts of a multipurpose reservoir cascade facilitating hydropower and irrigation in the Sesan River, a transboundary tributary of the Mekong. A model-based assessment approach was developed where the hydropower operations of a cascade of reservoirs were simulated together with the irrigation water withdrawals. The assessment revealed that the reservoirs created considerable irrigation potential (28,348 ha), and the resulting losses for hydropower generation were relatively small (). The river flow impacts were significant, but they originated mainly from the hydropower operations. The inclusion of irrigation led to an increased competition of water resources during the dry season. In addition, the assessed hydropower and irrigation development affected negatively protected areas, agriculturally valuable land, and forest cover. Gaps and shortcomings in the model-based assessments of water resources development were further recognized, including this one, concluding that particularly the connection to ecological and social domains remains often weak and needs, therefore, to be strengthened.
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Acknowledgments
The work presented in this paper was part of the MK3 Project of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food in the Mekong (CGIAR 2011) led by ICEM. For transforming the project work into this research article, TR received further funding from the RYM-TO Graduate School, PS from Institute of Technology of Cambodia, MKe from the Academy of Finland (#133748, #269901), and MKu from the postdoctoral funds of Aalto University and the Academy of Finland (#267463). The authors would like to thank the Mekong River Commission, particularly Erland Jensen, for kindly providing the hydrological data for the study. The authors are grateful to Prof. Olli Varis, Peter-John Meynell, and Tarek Ketelsen for their support. The comments and suggestions of editor and reviewers are warmly acknowledged.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 141 • Issue 1 • January 2015
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 30, 2013
Accepted: Apr 17, 2014
Published online: Jul 2, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 2, 2014
Published in print: Jan 1, 2015
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