Sediment balance in the Upper Nam Ngum : Modeling the hydrological response to climate change and developmental scenarios for guidance in hydro-power asset management
Hirvonen, Kenneth (2016)
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201604084054
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201604084054
Tiivistelmä
Exploitation of hydro-power in excess of 1.3 gigawatts is under development in the Upper Nan Ngum watershed. The infrastructure is expected to continue functioning well after control transfers to the government of Laos. Hydro power is regarded as renewable, reliable and timeless; stores of potential energy, requiring only regular maintenance.
This paper examines a creeping affliction, sedimentation which consumes reservoir volume and inevitably invalidates dam infrastructure. It focuses on the differential sedimentation found in hydro-logical modeling of climate change, land use change and dam operation. The findings illustrate a continuous relationship which maps sedimentation to regional change and predicts infrastructure senescence.
Based on the findings and according to operational objectives, no justification could be made for mitigation infrastructure. Social and ecological factors are not considered. The mechanistic response from climate change and land use change has been documented and quantified. A novel metric has been proposed for measuring reservoir sedimentation based on relationships found to exist in the modeled space. This instrument has the potential as a robust metric in hydro-power capacity monitoring.
This paper examines a creeping affliction, sedimentation which consumes reservoir volume and inevitably invalidates dam infrastructure. It focuses on the differential sedimentation found in hydro-logical modeling of climate change, land use change and dam operation. The findings illustrate a continuous relationship which maps sedimentation to regional change and predicts infrastructure senescence.
Based on the findings and according to operational objectives, no justification could be made for mitigation infrastructure. Social and ecological factors are not considered. The mechanistic response from climate change and land use change has been documented and quantified. A novel metric has been proposed for measuring reservoir sedimentation based on relationships found to exist in the modeled space. This instrument has the potential as a robust metric in hydro-power capacity monitoring.