How to comprehensively evaluate river discharge under the influence of a dam

Abstract

The dams in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are highly concentrated. Dam construction can effectively solve water shortage problems; however, the natural hydrological regimes of rivers have changed to varying degrees under the influence of water conservancy projects. In this study, a comprehensive method is proposed to analyze the hydrological regime changes in a river impacted by a dam through the evaluation of hydrological periodicity, hydrological frequency and hydrological parameters. Hydrological periodicity is used to evaluate the time series from the vertical multiyear perspective, while hydrological frequency is used to evaluate the time series from the horizontal one-year perspective. The two parameters have complementary roles. The indicators of hydrologic alteration and environmental flow component parameters are used to analyze the changes in various hydrological factors affected by the dam. The results demonstrate that the construction of dams can change the multiyear periodicity of the flow and reduce the peak flow. As a result, downstream fish may be unable to sense the reduced floods and fail to spawn. The indicators of hydrologic alteration and environmental flow component parameters can complement each other and can be used to evaluate changes in a hydrological regime influenced by a dam. This comprehensive method can be used to analyze how the hydrological regime is affected by this dam.