Author(s): Haruki Mineda; Kei Nukazawa; Yuto Tanimura; Yoshihiro Suzuki
Linked Author(s): Haruki Mineda, Kei NUKAZAWA
Keywords: Hydropower; Indicators of hydrologic alteration; Regulation; Runoff analysis; Watershed-scale
Abstract: Hydrological alterations can reduce aquatic biodiversity by disrupting the natural flow regimes that characterize the life cycles of organisms. However, past studies have faced difficulties in quantifying the impacts of dams and climate change, which are major drivers of hydrological alterations. Here, we aimed to evaluate and compare the flow regime alterations caused by dams and climate change throughout the Omaru River catchment, Japan, using a distributed hydrological model. First, to assess the impacts of dam and climate change independently, we performed runoff analyses using either dam discharge or future climatic data (two future periods × three representative concentration pathways; RCPs). Subsequently, we derived indicators of hydrologic alterations (IHA) to quantify changes in flow alterations by comparing them to IHA under natural conditions (i.e., without dam or climate change data). The runoff analyses showed high reproducibility throughout the study period (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency = 0.921–0.964). We found that dams altered flow regimes more than climate change, especially under conservative RCP scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP4.5). However, on a catchment-scale standpoint, climate change induced wider ranges of flow alterations, such as low flow metrics along the tributaries and uppermost main stem, suggesting a watershed-level shrinkage in important corridors of aquatic organisms by reducing upstream length and water level. We also observed that the altered flow regimes by water withdrawals were ameliorated by the confluence of tributaries and downstream hydropower outflows. Our approach, which used a distributed hydrological model, developed a better understanding of flow alterations by dams and climate change.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC2521711920221646
Year: 2022