Improving Reservoir Operation Criteria to Stabilize Water Supplies in a Multipurpose Dam: Focused on Nakdong River Basin in Korea

Abstract

Recently, torrential rain and drought have occurred in close temporal proximity and for similar durations due to changes in the spatiotemporal patterns of rainfall owing to climate change. In particular, when a drought occurs, it tends to be prolonged, making it necessary to improve the operation of multipurpose dams that not only control flooding but also serve as water supplies. In this study, standard water volume lines and action plans by response stage were improved so that water could be stored in advance of a drought instead of reservoir operation criteria set based on data from the past. The minimum water demand by use (domestic water, industrial water, and agricultural water) was also calculated. The improved reservoir operation criteria were applied to multipurpose dams in the Nakdong River Basin, and their effects were analyzed by calculating additionally secured water volumes. In the future, in case of lowered water volumes in multipurpose dams owing to a drought, the application of these improved reservoir operation criteria is expected to contribute to water supply stability by delaying entry into the drought stage and minimizing the damages caused by limited water supplies.

Impounding Reservoirs, Benefits and Risks: A Review of Environmental and Technical Aspects of Construction and Operation

“…C2.1-Water resources management [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] The analyses concern 4 very large, 12 large and 2 small reservoirs in Asia and 26 large or small reservoirs in Europe. In addition, publication [48] reviews based on a large dataset.…”

“…The publications analysed highlighted the crucial importance of reservoirs in increasing water resources, while pointing out the need for a complex approach to their management [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. To ensure a stable and uninterrupted water supply, it is assumed that improved reservoir-operation criteria [44] or predictive models using widely available hydrometeorological data can be introduced. This will also allow for proper real-time monitoring and assessment of the risk of water shortages [45].…”

Water Supply Reliability of Agricultural Reservoirs under Varying Climate and Rice Farming Practices

“…The climate vulnerability of Korea has been extensively examined by identifying the design water requirements for a 10-year return period drought under the historic [27] and future climate change trends [4,9,11,28], development and application of an irrigation vulnerability assessment model for agricultural reservoirs [1,24,29], meteorological and agricultural drought risk assessment [13,24,30], and improving the monitoring and management of reservoir operation to stabilize the irrigation water supply [31,32]. In addition to the hydrological repercussions, climate change is also transforming rice farming practices, crop growth periods, and yields [33], and irrigation water supply from agricultural reservoirs is highly dependent on the operational and physical characteristics of the irrigation district dictated by agricultural practices [25].…”

An Assessment of Dam Operation Considering Flood and Low-Flow Control in the Han River Basin

“…Technical ROM, Spillway rule curve ROM, Rigid ROM, Auto ROM, Scheduled release discharge ROM, Linear decision rule, Stochastic Dynamic Programming, Standard Operation Policy, and Nonlinear Decision Rule are a few examples [3,4]. Other methods such as Ev-ROM take account the flood mitigation at the downstream of the dam [5], the reservoir operation criteria used to stabilize water supplies in a multipurpose dam [6], the reservoir operation method considering real-time prediction or operation [7,8], and operation strategy for ecological condition [9] are also suggested. Each method has its objective and needs valuable experience and insights of the experts because its operation was significantly influenced by many factors, including the storage amount, hydrological conditions, environmental constraints, and many others [2].…”