Determining the Ecological Flow Regime for Existing Reservoir Operation

Maintaining the natural variability of a river’s flow regime is one of the most critical strategies sustaining the ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems. This research seeks to determine the ecological flow regime for management of streamflow existing reservoirs. The ecological flow regime is a human-modified flow regime that captures the natural flow variability for maintaining the structure and the functional integrity of the aquatic ecosystems. The design procedure uses regionalization analysis, the ratio method, and linear regression analysis techniques with hydrologic indicators to simulate the altered flow variability caused by human-based annual streamflow reduction. Because it is difficult for reservoir operators to achieve the strict standard of natural flow regime, a discontinuity ratio method is used to express the reservoir’s expected effect on the change in hydrologic indicator values. The final product of the ecological flow regime analysis produces a target reservoir operation and management that will provide a flow regime necessary to sustain the integrity of aquatic ecosystems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011