Water level management of lakes connected to regulated rivers: An integrated modeling and analytical methodology

Reservoir operations significantly alter the hydrological regime of the downstream river and river-connected lake, which has far-reaching impacts on the lake ecosystem. To facilitate the management of lakes connected to regulated rivers, the following information must be provided: (1) the response of lake water levels to reservoir operation schedules in the near future and (2) the importance of different rivers in terms of affecting the water levels in different lake regions of interest. We develop an integrated modeling and analytical methodology for the water level management of such lakes. The data-driven method is used to model the lake level as it has the potential of producing quick and accurate predictions. A new genetic algorithm-based synchronized search is proposed to optimize input variable time lags and data-driven model parameters simultaneously. The methodology also involves the orthogonal design and range analysis for extracting the influence of an individual river from that of all the rivers. The integrated methodology is applied to the second largest freshwater lake in China, the Dongting Lake. The results show that: (1) the antecedent lake levels are of crucial importance for the current lake level prediction; (2) the selected river discharge time lags reflect the spatial heterogeneity of the rivers’ impacts on lake level changes; (3) the predicted lake levels are in very good agreement with the observed data (RMSE ≤ 0.091 m; R2 ≥ 0.9986). This study demonstrates the practical potential of the integrated methodology, which can provide both the lake level responses to future dam releases and the relative contributions of different rivers to lake level changes

Monitoring and analysis of vertical thermal structure of the Three Gorges Reservoir

Water temperature plays a crucial role in water ecological environment both in the reservoir and downstream area. Three Gorges Project (TGP) is the largest hydraulic engineering in the world, and changes of water quality attract much more attention, especially in the thermal structure since impoundment. In order to clearly understand water temperature distribution after impoundment in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), we monitored the temperature distribution of the Taipingxi section which was not far from the dam from early April to the end of July. According to the analyzing of the monitoring data of transverse and vertical temperature variation, we could find that the temperature mixed uniformly in transverse direction. Excepting April, there was basically had no temperature difference in vertical direction, even in April, the maximum temperature difference was only 1.39°C within 100 meters (April 22), the average temperature gradient was only 0.014°C/m; Both the temperature of water and atmosphere have similar variation tendency, but the response of the water temperature to atmosphere is delayed, especially the bottom water temperature. The result indicate that the reservoir has mixed thermal structure during impoundment phase, so the release temperature had little change after the impoundment, the work provide a scientific basis for the development of pollution control and ecological protection measure

Development of an Optimal Model for the Xiluodu-Xiangjiaba Cascade Reservoir System Considering the Downstream Environmental Flow

To explore the influence of the Xiluodu-Xiangjiaba cascade reservoir system on the appropriate environmental flow (AEF) of the Jinsha River, a multiobjective optimal cascade reservoir model was established with the aim of maximizing power generation while minimizing the downstream degree of AEF alteration. The AEF was determined using the range of variability approach (RVA). The optimal model was solved using an improved version of NSGA-II called INSGA2-DS. Inflows in typical normal and dry years were selected for optimization. The results show that in a normal year, power generation can be increased by 1.28% compared with that under the current regular operation conditions by prioritizing the maximization of power generation, in which case the degree of AEF alteration will increase by 13.86%. In contrast, the degree of AEF alteration will decrease by 22.53% if ecological protection is prioritized, but power generation will decrease by 0.62%. Similarly, in a dry year, power generation can be increased by 1.76% compared with that under the current regular operation conditions to maximize economic benefit, in which case, the degree of AEF alteration will increase by 4.95%. By contrast, the degree of AEF alteration can be decreased by 13.70% if the objective is AEF minimization, but power generation will decrease by 0.48%. These research results provide useful information for the formulation of ecological operation schemes involving cascade reservoirs on the Jinsha River