Reservoir impacts on water security

摘要

Considerations within the framework of the Panta Rhei Research Initiative of IAHS allow investigation of reservoirs as a factor in water security. The assessment of reservoir impact gives an opportunity to estimate the efficiency of their use from this point of view. On the one hand, reservoir creation leads to the satisfaction of the needs of society for water. On the other hand, the environmental impact is not always friendly to humans. The insufficient development of a methodological framework for impact analysis and forecasting hampers the finding of optimal technical solutions, especially for forecasting of reservoir behaviour at the design stage before regulation. Creation of a dam changes the ecosystem characteristics of the regulated part of the river not only quantitatively but qualitatively. In this regard more universal approaches should be used than the traditional statistical analysis of previous data. For example, it is necessary to move from phenomenological water quality models to simulation of nutrient biogeochemical cycles' transformation and calibration should be carried out on the data of a reservoir analogue. These investigations are integrated and interdisciplinary initially. At the same time, outcomes will be more similar to the technology for use in practice.