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Controlling floodwater mosquitoes by river regulation
Author(s) -
Dargahi Bijan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/wej.12474
Subject(s) - hydrograph , inflow , environmental science , flooding (psychology) , flood myth , hydrology (agriculture) , water resource management , geography , meteorology , geology , psychology , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , psychotherapist
Floodwater mosquitoes cause serious problems especially the spread of mosquito‐borne diseases. The main challenge is to implement acceptable general mitigation methods. In recent years, encouraging steps have been taken in favour of developing more sustainable measures such as modern biological methods. The novelty of the present study is in suggesting an alternative green method that can eliminate the use of any secondary biological or chemical agents. The method is based on establishing an alternative river regulation scheme that limits flooding of high‐risk lowland areas. A combined hydrodynamic modelling and optimization method gave effective river regulation schemes. The main idea is to maintain the total power production for a modified inflow hydrograph. The approach was applied to a 30‐km reach of the Österdalälven River located in central Sweden. It was found that with the specific constraints of the site a reduction of about 8% of lowland flood areas is possible if the inflow hydrograph is moderately modified by 20%. Higher reductions are possible by further modification of the hydrograph. The proposed method has a general character controlled by the specific site requirements of a critical flow or a water surface elevation. Based on the foregoing information, the method can be applied to similar sites.