Background: Setting an appropriate environmental to sustain ecological qualities as a very important task in hydropower projects. A large number of methods are available, spanning from the very simple statistical methods to comprehensive, holistic methods. The simpler methods can not be said to be based on ecological understanding of the aquatic ecosystems as they are simply derived from hydrological data (e.g. “Q95”). The more comprehensive methods (Building Block Method – BBM) and DRIFT) require detailed data about individual species preferences and the human water use, and is by their data needs, that is not available, often disqualified.
Figure 1: Example of a bypass section in Laos with very small minimum flow.
This project aims at assessing the suitability of different environmental flow methods that are available which are more ecological based than the simple hydrological methods, while at the same less data demanding than the most comprehensive methods. The study will be carried out in a region of the world which should be typical for ‘data scarce regions’, as such representative for hydropower projects in e.g. Africa or Asia. The final selection will be made based on dialogue with the student.
This project aims at carrying out the following tasks:
- Review the most relevant methods for setting environment flow, in between the very simple to the comprehensive, holistic methods (literature review)
- Select a few numbers of methods to be studied in detail
- Carry out a case study where one (or more) of the methods are applied
- Propose guidelines for studies to be carried out for setting environmental flow requirements in data scarce regions
Supervisor: Tor Haakon Bakken