Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Influence of Hydropower Development on Flow Regime in the Zambezi River Basin for Different Scenarios of Environmental Flows

  • Published:
Water Resources Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

As the need for energy is increasing, the challenges in the future are to operate existing large hydraulic schemes in more sustainable ways and to develop future water resources projects that are able to achieve a better balance between environmental and socio-economic demands. In this context, scenarios combining different levels of environmental requirements as well as hydropower developments were simulated at a daily time step with a hydraulic-hydrological model (the Soil and Water Assessment Tool) over the Zambezi River Basin. For each scenario, the hydropower operation rules, the mean annual energy produced and the firm powers were considered. The impact on the flow regime was characterized by a hydrological alteration indicator and Pardé coefficients. In the present state, the total mean annual energy production is about 30,000 GWh with a firm power of about 3,000 MW. The impact of the dams on the flow regime is low in the Kafue flats and the Zambezi delta and high in the Mana Pools. The new run-of-river hydropower plants aim to increase the mean energy production by more than 90 % and the firm power by about 40 %. Releasing e-flows can reduce the impact in the Kafue flats and in the Zambezi delta, with a loss of less than 10 % of mean annual energy production and about 15 % of the firm power at Itezhi-Tezhi and Cahora Bassa. This reveals that a compromise between energy production and environmental sustainability can be reached.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arnold JG, Srinivasan R, Muttiah RS, Williams JR (1998) Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment part I: model development. J Am Water Resour Assoc 34(1):73–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arthington AH, Bunn SE, Poff NL, Naiman RJ (2006) The challenge of providing environmental flow rules to sustain river ecosystems. Ecol Appl 16(4):1311–1318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beilfuss R (2010) Modelling trade-offs between hydropower generation and environmental flow scenarios: a case study of the Lower Zambezi River Basin, Mozambique. Int J River Basin Manag 8(3–4):331–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beilfuss R (2012) A risky climate for Southern African hydro - assessing hydrological risks and consequences for Zambezi River Basin damsRep., Berkeley, USA

  • Beilfuss R, Brown C (2010) Assessing environmental flow requirements and trade-offs for the Lower Zambezi River and Delta, Mozambique. Int J River Basin Manage 8(2):127–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beilfuss R, Dos Santos D (2001) Patterns of hydrological change in the Zambezi Delta, Mozambique. In Working paper 2, Program for the sustainable management of Cahora Bassa Dam and the lower Zambezi Valley, edited, International Crane Foundation

  • Cohen Liechti T, Matos JP, Boillat JL, Schleiss AJ (2012) Comparison and evaluation of satellite derived precipitation products for hydrological modeling of the Zambezi River Basin. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 16(2):489–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen Liechti T, Matos JP, Ferràs Segura D, Boillat J-L, and Schleiss AJ (2014) Hydrological modeling of the Zambezi River Basin taking into account floodplain behavior by a modified reservoir approach. Int J River Basin Manage

  • Cohen Liechti T, Matos JP, Boillat JL, Portela MM, and Schleiss AJ (2014) Hydraulic–hydrologic model for water resources management ofthe Zambezi basin. J Appl Water Eng Res 1–13. doi:10.1080/23249676.2014.958581

  • Comair GF, McKinney DC, Maidment DR, Espinoza G, Sangiredy H, Fayad A, Salas FR (2014) Hydrology of the Jordan River Basin: a GIS-based system to better guide water resources management and decision making. Water Resour Manag 28(4):933–946

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dessu SB, Melesse AM (2012) Modelling the rainfall-runoff process of the Mara River basin using the soil and water assessment tool. Hydrol Process 26(26):4038–4049

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (1995), Digital soil map of the world and derived soil properties version 3.5 [CD-ROM], In: Land and water digital media series, edited, Rome, Italy

  • Fekete, BM, Vörösmarty CJ and Grabs W (1999), Global, composite runoff fields based on observed river discharge and simulated water balancesRep., Koblenz, Germany

  • Gandolfi C, Guariso G, Togni D (1997) Optimal flow allocation in the Zambezi River system. Water Resour Manag 11(5):377–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hargreaves GH, Samani ZA (1985) Reference crop evapotranspiration from temperature. Appl Eng Agric 1(2):96–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison GP, Whittington HW (2002) Susceptibility of the Batoka Gorge hydroelectric scheme to climate change. J Hydrol 264(1–4):230–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison D, Opperman J, Richter B (2007) Can hydropower be sustainable? Int Water Power Dam Constr 59(10):22–25

    Google Scholar 

  • International Commission On Large Dams (2007), Dams and the world’s waterRep., Paris, France

  • International Commission On Large Dams (2012), World declaration. Water storage for sustainable development, edited

  • Kanamitsu M, Ebisuzaki W, Woollen J, Yang S-K, Hnilo JJ, Fiorino M, Potter GL (2002) NCEP–DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis (R-2). Bull Am Meteorol Soc 83(11):1631–1643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mango LM, Melesse AM, McClain ME, Gann D, Setegn SG (2011) Land use and climate change impacts on the hydrology of the upper Mara River Basin, Kenya: results of a modeling study to support better resource management. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15(7):2245–2258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matos JP, Cohen T, Boillat JL, Schleiss AJ, and Portela MM (2010), Analysis of flow regime changes due to operation of large reservoirs on the Zambezi River, paper presented at 6th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics, Taylor and Francis Group, London, Athens, Greece, 23–25 June 2010

  • Meile T, Boillat JL, Schleiss AJ (2011) Hydropeaking indicators for characterization of the Upper-Rhone River in Switzerland. Aquat Sci 73(1):171–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore AE, Cotterill FPD, Main MPL, and Williams HB (2007), The Zambezi River. Large Rivers, 311–332

  • Neitsch SL, Arnold JG, Kiniry JR and Williams JR (2009), Soil and water assessment tool theoretical documentation (Version 2009), edited, Temple, Texas

  • Ostadrahimi L, Mariño MA, Afshar A (2012) Multi-reservoir operation rules: multi-swarm PSO-based optimization approach. Water Resour Manag 26(2):407–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter BD and Thomas GA (2007), Restoring environmental flows by modifying dam operations. Ecol Soc 12(1), art. no. 12

  • Richter BD, Baumgartner JV, Wigington R, Braun DP (1997) How much water does a river need? Freshw Biol 37(1):231–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter BD, Baumgartner JV, Braun DP, Powell J (1998) A spatial assessment of hydrologic alteration within a river network. River Res Appl 14(4):329–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schuol J, Abbaspour KC, Yang H, Srinivasan R and Zehnder AJB (2008), Modeling blue and green water availability in Africa. Water Resour Res 44(7), art. no. W07406

  • The World Bank (2010) The Zambezi River Basin A Multi-Sector Investment Opportunities Analysis. The World Bank, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilmant A, Beevers L, and Muyunda B (2010), Restoring a flow regime through the coordinated operation of a multireservoir system: the case of the Zambezi River basin. Water Resour Res 46(7), art. no. W07533

  • Tilmant A, Kinzelbach W, Juizo D, Beevers L, Senn DB, Casarotto C (2012) Economic valuation of benefits and costs associated with the coordinated development and management of the Zambezi river basin. Water Policy 14(3):490–508

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Development Programme (2006) Human development report, beyond scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisisRep. UNDP, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • USDA Soil Conservation Service (1972) SCS National engineering handbook section 4: hydrology. Washington DC, USA

  • Vörösmarty CJ, Moore B III (1991) Modeling basin-scale hydrology in support of physical climate and global biogeochemical studies: An example using the Zambezi River. Surv Geophys 12(1–3):271–311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrugt JA, Robinson BA (2007) Improved evolutionary optimization from genetically adaptive multimethod search. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104(3):708–711

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrugt JA, Robinson BA, Hyman JM (2009) Self-adaptive multimethod search for global optimization in real-parameter spaces. IEEE Trans Evol Comput 13(2):243–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin XA, Yang ZF and Petts GE (2011) Reservoir operating rules to sustain environmental flows in regulated rivers. Water Resour Res 47(8), art. no. 7206

  • Yin XA, Yang ZF, Petts GE (2012) Optimizing environmental flows below dams. River Res Appl 28(6):703–716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang XM, Wang LP, Li JW, Zhang YK (2013) Self-optimization simulation model of short-term cascaded hydroelectric system dispatching based on the daily load curve. Water Resour Manag 27(15):5045–5067

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Hydraulic Constructions (LCH), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 18, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    T. Cohen Liechti, J. P. Matos, J.-L. Boillat & A. J. Schleiss

  2. SHRH, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Avda. Rovisco Pais, Lisbon, 1049-001, Portugal

    J. P. Matos

Authors
  1. T. Cohen Liechti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. P. Matos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J.-L. Boillat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. A. J. Schleiss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. Cohen Liechti.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cohen Liechti, T., Matos, J.P., Boillat, JL. et al. Influence of Hydropower Development on Flow Regime in the Zambezi River Basin for Different Scenarios of Environmental Flows. Water Resour Manage 29, 731–747 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0838-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0838-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation