Tor Haakon Bakken
The production of electricity from hydropower is exclusively determined by the availability of water. Upstream water use such as irrigation and drinking water supply, down-stream constraints and climate change are just some of the factors that can pose a risk to the hydropower producer. The relationships between these factors can in many river basins be very complex, introducing large uncertainties to future revenues. Tools to analyze the wider under-standing of the hydrological risks in river basins with multiple and geographically distributed water uses have to a limited extent been applied in the long-term planning of hydropower projects. The use of such tools will reduce the financial risk of a project, as well as providing a basis for dialogue between stakeholders.
The project proposed will run the hydrological and water allocation model WEAP (Water evaluation and planning tool) in a selected regulated river basin. The basin should experience (now or in the future) competition of water resources and potential risk of conflicts between water use, and climate change scenarios indicating larger water stress. The project will:
- Configure WEAP for a selected river basin (can be based on the student’s choice of basin)
- Define a set of scenarios for future changes in water use and availability
- Simulate the effect on the different water users
- Investigate potential mitigating measures to reduce potential conflicts over the water resources
Supervisors: Tor Haakon Bakken & Lennart Schönfelder (PhD-student)