Assessment of environmental flows under limited data availability: case study of the Acheloos River,Greece |
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| Authors: | A Efstratiadis A Tegos A Varveris D Koutsoyiannis |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechneiou 5, GR-157 80 Zographou, Greeceandreas@itia.ntua.gr;3. Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechneiou 5, GR-157 80 Zographou, Greece;4. ECOS Consulting S.A., Makedonon 10, GR-115 21 Athens, Greece;5. ECOS Consulting S.A., Makedonon 10, GR-115 21 Athens, Greece |
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| Abstract: | AbstractThe lower course of the Acheloos River is an important hydrosystem in Greece, heavily modified by a cascade of four hydropower dams upstream, which is now being extended by two more dams in the upper course. The design of the dams and hydropower facilities that are in operation has not considered any environmental criteria. However, in the last 50 years, numerous methodologies have been proposed to assess the negative impacts of such projects to both the abiotic and biotic environment, and to provide decision support towards establishing appropriate constraints on their operation, typically in terms of minimum flow requirements. In this study, seeking a more environmentally-friendly operation of the hydrosystem, we investigate the outflow policy from the most downstream dam, examining alternative environmental flow approaches. Accounting for data limitations, we recommend the basic flow method, which is parsimonious and suitable for Mediterranean rivers, whose flows exhibit strong variability across seasons. We also show that the wetted perimeter–discharge method, which is an elementary hydraulic approach, provides consistent results, even without using any flow data. Finally, we examine the adaptation of the proposed flow policy (including artificial flooding) to the real-time hydropower generation schedule, and the management of the resulting conflicts. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor M. AcremanCitation Efstratiadis, A., Tegos, A., Varveris, A., and Koutsoyiannis, D., 2014. Assessment of environmental flows under limited data availability: case study of the Acheloos River, Greece. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 731–750. |
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| Keywords: | modified rivers hydroelectric dams reservoir water balance basic maintenance flow wetted perimeter–discharge artificial floods |
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