Optimizing Operating Rules for a Reservoir System in Northern China Considering Ecological Flow Requirements and Water Use Priorities
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146, Issue 7
Abstract
One of the most common ways of operating a reservoir system is to follow preestablished rules that specify the allowable releases at different time points of a year. Reservoir operating rules traditionally focus on human water uses such as flood control, water supply, hydroelectric power generation, and recreation, without fully considering downstream ecological requirements. At present, a key challenge is how to carry out multipurpose coordinated operations under the premise of restoring the flow regime for downstream ecosystems while maintaining (or minimizing interruptions to) the original water use benefits. To deal with this challenge, this paper presents a case study of a reservoir system in northern China (the Luan River Basin). The ecological flow requirements are estimated using Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA); water supply priorities for domestic, aquatic ecosystem, and agricultural uses are quantified and incorporated as constraints into a simulation-optimization model to optimize the operation. Reservoir storage allocation and water supply to the various requirements will be determined simultaneously under various inflow conditions. The modeling results demonstrate the effectiveness in identifying solutions to improve downstream river ecosystems while maintaining existing human water use benefits.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0403504) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51579064) and Technology Demonstration Project of Ministry of Water Resources of China (SF-201803). For this study, the first and second authors were also supported by China Scholarship Council (CSC) for their visit in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All authors would also like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which significantly improved the original manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 10, 2019
Accepted: Jan 21, 2020
Published online: May 14, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 14, 2020
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