Premium
Agricultural vs. hydropower tradeoffs in the operation of the High Aswan Dam
Author(s) -
OvenThompson Katherine,
Alercon Luis,
Marks David H.
Publication year - 1982
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/wr018i006p01605
Subject(s) - hydropower , spillway , environmental science , agriculture , irrigation , flood control , turbine , water resource management , hydroelectricity , flood myth , current (fluid) , agricultural productivity , hydrology (agriculture) , engineering , geography , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , electrical engineering , mechanical engineering , ecology , biology
This paper defines a tradeoff relationship between hydropower and agriculture for the monthly operations of the High Aswan Dam under current water availability conditions. A stochastic dynamic programming model is employed which incorporates the physical constraints (e.g., reservoir storage limits, turbine capacity, allowable reservoir releases, etc.) of the High Aswan Dam system. Variations of monthly reservoir releases for agricultural purposes are imposed on the system through this model, and consequent impacts on hydropower production at the high dam are studied. The results show that once operating rules are optimized for current agricultural demands an 11–20% increase in firm monthly hydropower production can be gained when summer irrigation allocations are reduced by 25%. A simple benefit/cost analysis concludes that potential benefits obtained by gains in firm monthly hydropower are nearly equal to potential losses in the agricultural sector when summer allocations are reduced by 5–10%. Operation questions raised by the introduction of a new emergency flood control spillway at Toshka are addressed. Recommendations are made for the operating guidelines of the high dam releases in light of these results.