Climate change asks for the reduction in the consumption of fossil-based fuels and an increased share of non-regulated renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. In order to back up a larger share of these intermittent sources, 'battery services' are needed, currently provided only in large scale by hydropower, leading to more rapid and frequent changes in flows (hydropeaking) in the downstream rivers. Increased knowledge about the ecosystem response to such operations and design of cost-effective measures is needed.We analysed the response of fish communities to hydropeaking (frequency, magnitude, ramping rate and timing) and the interaction with the habitat conditions in Austrian rivers. An index of biotic integrity (Fish Index Austria) was used to compare river sections with varying degrees of flow fluctuations under near-natural and channelized habitat conditions. The results showed that habitat conditions, peak frequency (number of peaks per year), ramping rate (water level variation) and interaction between habitat and ramping rate explained most of the variation of the Fish Index Austria. In addition, peaking during the night seems to harm fish more than peaking during the day. Fish communities in hyporhithral and epipotamal types of rivers are more affected by hydropeaking than those in metarhithral type of rivers. The results support the findings of other studies that fish stranding caused by ramping rates >15 cm h À1 are likely to be the main cause of fish community degradation when occurring more often than 20 times a year. While the ecological status degrades with increasing ramping rate in nature-like rivers, fish communities are heavily degraded in channelized rivers regardless of the ramping rate. The mitigation of hydropeaking, therefore, requires an integrative approach considering the combined effects of hydrological and morphological alterations on fish.

Flow is a major driver of processes shaping physical habitat in streams and a major determinant of biotic composition. Flow fluctuations play an important role in the survival and reproductive potential of aquatic organisms as they have evolved life history strategies primarily in direct response to natural flow regimes (Poff et al. 1997; Bunn and Arthington 2002). However, although the organisms are generally adapted to natural dynamics in discharge, naturally caused flow fluctuations may entail negative consequences (e.g., stranding, drift, low productivity), especially if the intensity is exceptionally high or the event timing is unusual (Unfer et al. 2011; Nagrodski et al. 2012). Aside from natural dynamics in discharge, artificial flow fluctuations with harmful impacts on aquatic ecology can be induced by human activities. Hydropeaking-the discontinuous release of turbined water due to peaks of energy demand-causes artificial flow fluctuations downstream of reservoirs.

Peak-operating hydropower plants are usually the energy grid's backbone by providing flexible energy production. At the same time, hydropeaking operations are considered one of the most adverse impacts on rivers, whereby aquatic organisms and their life-history stages can be affected in many ways. Therefore, we propose specific seasonal regulations to protect ecologically sensitive life cycle stages. By reviewing hydropeaking literature, we establish a framework for hydrological mitigation based on life-history stages of salmonid fish and their relationship with key parameters of the hydrograph. During migration and spawning, flows should be kept relatively stable, and a flow cap should be implemented to prevent the dewatering of spawning grounds during intragravel life stages. While eggs may be comparably tolerant to dewatering, post-hatch stages are very vulnerable, which calls for minimizing or eliminating the duration of drawdown situations and providing adequate minimum flows. Especially emerging fry are extremely sensitive to flow fluctuations. As fish then grow in size, they become less vulnerable. Therefore, an 'emergence window', where stringent thresholds on ramping rates are enforced, is proposed. Furthermore, time of day, morphology, and temperature changes must be considered as they may interact with hydropeaking. We conclude that the presented mitigation framework can aid the environmental enhancement of hydropeaking rivers while maintaining flexible energy production.2 of 17 impacts on rivers downstream of dams" [3]. Fish communities, in particular, are severely threatened by hydropeaking [4]. Fish can be affected by changes in various components of the hydrograph, whereby the most common responses-stranding, drift, and dewatering of spawning grounds-are mostly related to up-and downramping rates [5,6], peak flow magnitude [5], and baseflow duration [7].Considering the large capacity of existing storage hydropower plants [8], as well as new ones that are currently being planned and installed [9], it is imperative to develop appropriate and transferable management measures to mitigate these ecological impacts. Many structural (e.g., constructing retention basins) and operational (e.g., reducing flow fluctuation rates) mitigation measures have been proposed [10,11], but implementation remains difficult, among other issues, because of significant reductions in the energy yield when setting ecological thresholds [2,12]. Therefore, well-targeted mitigation measures have to be developed to avoid energy losses and to guarantee ecological efficiency.Freeman et al. [13] argue that adverse effects can be minimized by either restoring vital features of the natural flow regime or by implementing a flow management scheme which avoids hydropower-induced habitat bottlenecks. Regarding the latter, multiple studies point out the need to identify critical flows, which include seasonal and diel considerations when determining operational mitigation strategies in rivers affected by hydropeaking [5,[13][14][15][16]. To...

"The water runs the river." This chapter focuses on the river flow as the fundamental process determining the size, shape, structure, and dynamics of riverine ecosystems. We briefly introduce hydrological regimes as key characteristics of river flow. Hydrological regimes are then linked to habitats and biotic communities. The effects of flow regulation as a result of human activities such as water abstraction (irrigation and hydropower), river channelization, land use, and climate change are demonstrated. Finally, methods to assess the environmental flow, the flow that is needed to maintain the ecological integrity, are described, and examples of successful flow restoration presented. The Water Cycle and Hydrological RegimesIn temperate zones water received via precipitation is either stored in ice and snow during winter or infiltrates into the groundwater and is released into rivers during summer. Water cycles through stages of evaporation, water storage in the atmosphere, precipitation, (sub)surface runoff, and storage in the ocean. The water cycle and climatic conditions form the boundary conditions for the hydrological regimes that define distinct seasonal and daily flow patterns. High altitude rivers receive water mainly from glacial melt during summer with distinct diurnal melting peaks following air temperature warm-up (glacial regime) (Fig. 4.1). At lower elevations snow melting in spring causes seasonal peaks (nival regime), while periods of high flow and floods due to rainfall can occur at any time of the year (pluvial regime).

Abstract:Hydro peaking causes an important environmental impact on running water ecosystems. Many affected rivers have a poor ecological status. In rivers affected by hydro peaking, the flow conditions are highly complex and difficult to grasp. To develop a general framework for detecting and characterizing sub-daily flow fluctuations, we analysed more than 500 Austrian hydrographs, covering the whole range from unimpacted to heavily impacted rivers. Different fluctuation types could be identified according to the potential source: e.g. sub-daily flow fluctuations caused by hydro peaking, rainfall or snow and glacier melt. Additionally, the term 'hydro fibrillation' was established, to indicate frequently occurring artificial fluctuations with comparably low intensities. An automatic procedure was used to detect frequency and intensity of each flow fluctuation. Using variables based on duration curves of flow fluctuation rates (ramping rates), amplitudes, flow ratios, durations and daily numbers of fluctuations, a predictive model (linear discriminant analysis) was fitted to classify hydrographs into predominant fluctuation regimes. This is the basis for a detailed investigation of present sub-daily flow regimes and to analyse the differences between the regimes. Based on the results, we finally propose a general framework that enables a standardized assessment of flow fluctuations regarding event intensities and/or event timing. The proposed framework offers a standardized selection of particular flow fluctuations referring to increase and decrease events separately. The selection of specific flow fluctuations can be defined with respect to several research questions (e.g. ecologically relevant fluctuations), which offers a wide range of applications.