Abstract
A new degree of freedom in water management is presented here. This is obtained by displacing water, and in this paper is conceptually explained by two methods: using an excavated cavern as a container for compressed air to displace water, and using inflatable balloons. The concepts might have a large impact on a variety of water management applications, ranging from mitigating discharge fluctuation in rivers to flood control, energy storage applications and disease-reduction measures. Currently at a low technological readiness level, the concepts require further research and development, but the authors see no technical challenges related to these concepts. The reader is encouraged to use the ideas within this paper to find new applications and to continue the out-of-the-box thinking initiated by the ideas presented in this paper.
Highlights
Fresh water is a paramount part of any human life and a prerequisite for a developed society and high quality of life
The objective of this paper is to present the concepts and to get engineers and scientists to “think outside the box”, and in this way stimulate ingenuity and the emergence of new technical solutions
The authors recognize that the concepts described in this paper are far from being deployed, and muchThe research and development is needed the concepts reachare a technological readiness level (TRL)
Summary
Fresh water is a paramount part of any human life and a prerequisite for a developed society and high quality of life. Projects, but transferrable to the general case as well) in which energy and water management services as well as their main environmental and societal characteristics are identified. These services might be the following: transportation and recreation (riverboats and barges); irrigation; fisheries; energy storage and power production (hydropower production (at HPP)); electric energy storage (Pumped Hydro Storage, (PHS)); waste management; fertilization of farmland (sedimentation by flooding); protection of shorelines (sediments settling in estuaries and river mouths dampening waves and tidal erosion); flood protection (dams and natural lakes reduce flood intensity); and groundwater stabilization. The effect of this on the watercourses on a regional and local scale is difficult to predict, Water 2019, 11, 2528; doi:10.3390/w11122528 www.mdpi.com/journal/water a governmental and political will, funding is available
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