Premium
Relations among storage, yield, and instream flow
Author(s) -
Vogel Richard M.,
Sieber Jack,
Archfield Stacey A.,
Smith Mark P.,
Apse Colin D.,
HuberLee Annette
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2006wr005226
Subject(s) - flow (mathematics) , environmental science , yield (engineering) , water storage , water resource management , hydrology (agriculture) , negotiation , water supply , streamflow , computer science , environmental engineering , geology , mathematics , geography , drainage basin , geotechnical engineering , cartography , metallurgy , inlet , political science , law , materials science , geometry , geomorphology
An extensive literature documents relations between reservoir storage capacity and water supply yield and the properties of instream flow needed to support downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, the literature that evaluates the impact of reservoir operating rules on instream flow properties is limited to a few site‐specific studies, and as a result, few general conclusions can be drawn to date. This study adapts the existing generalized water evaluation and planning model (WEAP) to enable general explorations of relations between reservoir storage, instream flow, and water supply yield for a wide class of reservoirs and operating rules. Generalized relationships among these variables document the types of instream flow policies that when combined with drought management strategies, are likely to provide compromise solutions to the ecological and human negotiations for water for different sized reservoir systems. The concept of a seasonal ecodeficit/ecosurplus is introduced for evaluating the impact of reservoir regulation on ecological flow regimes.