Title

Sizing an Off-stream Reservoir with Respect to Water Availability, Water Quality, and Biological Integrity

Authors

Authors

N. B. Chang; H. W. Chen; S. K. Ning; H. Y. Hsu; K. T. Shao;T. C. Hung

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Environ. Model. Assess.

Keywords

Reservoir sizing; Environmental flow; Water quality management; Ecological conservation; Water resources management; Sustainable; development; BIOTIC INTEGRITY; FISH COMMUNITIES; RISK-ASSESSMENT; DESIGN; MANAGEMENT; INFLOW; INDEX; SYSTEMS; SUSTAINABILITY; SEDIMENTATION; Environmental Sciences

Abstract

Sizing a new reservoir is a challenging task, which normally requires simultaneously a cost-effective, risk-informed, and forward-looking decision analysis with respect to basin-wide hydrological features, environmental quality, and biological integrity. Such a sustainable planning approach takes into account the global trend to balance the needs of economic growth, ecological conservation, and environmental protection. To achieve the goal of sustainability, emphasis in this paper was placed upon the correlation of three physical, chemical, and biological indices, including the dissolved oxygen (DO), the 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD(5)), and the index of biotic integrity (IBI), for the optimal planning of a reservoir in a river basin. This new methodological paradigm has been employed for sizing an off-stream reservoir in the Hou-Lung River Basin, central Taiwan. The internal linkage between the water quality parameters (DO and BOD(5)) and the IBI levels further enables us to formulate a special biotic integrity constraint which reflects fish community attributes to suit a relatively low-density and unspecialized freshwater fish fauna in response to the changing water quality conditions in the river basin. The tradeoffs among economic, environmental, and ecological aspects for reservoir sizing can then be based on the river flow patterns, the water demand, the water quality standards, and the anticipated biological integrity in some critical river reaches. Findings in a preliminary case study suggest that an optimal pumping scheme may be smoothly maintained on a yearly basis within a combined multicriteria and multiobjective decision-making process.

Journal Title

Environmental Modeling & Assessment

Volume

15

Issue/Number

5

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

329

Last Page

344

WOS Identifier

WOS:000282742800004

ISSN

1420-2026

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