A method to detect and characterize sub‐daily flow fluctuations

Greimel, Franz; Zeiringer, Bernhard; Höller, Norbert; Grün, Bettina; Godina, Reinhold; Schmutz, Stefan

doi:10.1002/hyp.10773

Cited by 44 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The field of environmental flow has progressed towards advocating function-and process-oriented flows [14,77], thereby moving away from static water allocations and towards dynamic environmental flows to sustain ecological communities [14,78]. Considering that hydropeaking rivers are essentially residual flow stretches-just that, in addition to water abstraction, they are also highly impacted by sub-daily flow fluctuations [79]-mitigation measures for hydropeaking must be incorporated into the seasonal and inter-annual environmental flow requirements. Therefore, scientific advancement must merge the concepts of dynamic environmental flow and hydropeaking mitigation to propose sustainable and holistic management recommendations for flow-altered watercourses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Stage-Specific Hydropeaking Flow Rules

et al. 2019

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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...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Stage-Specific Hydropeaking Flow Rules

et al. 2019

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“…rapid flow decreases) (Sauterleute & Charmasson 2014). Tools are now available to calculate hydro-peaking parameters based on timeseries of discharge and water level (Sauterleute & Charmasson 2014;Carolli et al 2015;Greimel et al 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of river water temperatures during various hydro-peaking regimes

Bakken

King

Alfredsen

2016

Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research

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“…Shortterm, high-frequency variation in dam discharge ('hydropeaking') causes rapid changes in river stage that impact river corridors in three dimensions -longitudinally, laterally, and vertically -and have wide ranging effects as a function of an area's position in the watershed (Ward, 1989;Ward and Stanford, 1995). In particular, research has highlighted the importance of vertical connectivity that promotes surface water (increased stage) or groundwater (decreased stage) intrusion into the hyporheic zone in response to high frequency fluctuations (Francis et al, 2010;Fritz and Arntzen, 2007;Greimel et al, 2016;Johnson et al, 2015;Lauters et al, 1996;Sawyer et al, 2009;Song et al, 2018;Ward and Stanford, 1995;Zhou et al, 2017). Additionally, hydropower infrastructure diminishes free-flowing stretches of open water and creates large reservoirs of low-velocity water bodies behind dams.…”

Section: Hydropower Impacts On River Corridor Hydrologic Exchange Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface biogeochemistry is a missing link between ecology and hydrology in dam-impacted river corridors

Graham

Stegen

Huang

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Global investment in hydropower is rapidly increasing, fueled by a need to manage water availability and by incentives promoting renewable energy sources. This expansion poses unrecognized risks to the world’s vulnerable freshwaters. While many hydropower impacts have been investigated, dam-induced alterations to subsurface processes influence river corridor ecosystem health in ways that remain poorly understood. We advocate for a better understanding of dam impacts on subsurface biogeochemical activity, its connection to hydrology, and follow-on trophic cascades within the broader river corridor. We delineate an integrated view of hydropower impacts in which dam-induced changes to surface water flow regimes generate changes in surface-subsurface hydrologic exchange flows (HEFs) that subsequently (1) regulate resource availability for benthic microorganisms at the base of aquatic food webs and (2) impose kinetic constraints on biogeochemical reactions and organismal growth across a range of trophic levels. These HEF-driven effects on river corridor food webs, as mediated by subsurface biogeochemistry, are a key knowledge gap in our assessment of hydropower sustainability and putatively combine with other, more well-known dam impacts to result in significant changes to river corridor health. We suggest targeted laboratory and field-based studies to link hydrobiogeochemical models used to predict heat transport, biogeochemical rates, and hydrologic flow with ecological models that incorporate biomass changes in specific categories of organisms. Doing so will enable predictions of feedbacks among hydrology, temperature, biogeochemical rates, organismal abundances, and resource transfer across trophic levels. An understanding of dam impacts on subsurface hydrobiogeochemistry and its connection to the broader aquatic food web is fundamental to enabling mechanism-based decision making for sustainable hydropower operations.

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A method to detect and characterize sub‐daily flow fluctuations

Cited by 44 publications

References 25 publications

Life Stage-Specific Hydropeaking Flow Rules

Life Stage-Specific Hydropeaking Flow Rules

Simulation of river water temperatures during various hydro-peaking regimes

Subsurface biogeochemistry is a missing link between ecology and hydrology in dam-impacted river corridors

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