IAHS Symposium on Large River Basins

Abstract

The flow regime of large rivers is significantly influenced by man's activities, such as land use or river development. In other cases, there is evidence that climate change is the reason for modified flow regime. When basins are shared by a number of countries, the problems of hydrologic change become even more critical. Therefore, the social and economic consequences of changes in the flow regime of large river basins is far reaching,To improve the understanding of hydrologic processes and to investigate the availability of tools and methods that can be used to analyze the hydrological impacts of changes in flow, the International Association of Hydrologic Sciences (IAHS) and International Commission on Surface Water (ICSW) devoted its symposium, held at the August 1991 XXth General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Vienna, Austria, to the theme “Hydrology for Water Management of Large River Basins.” The theme was divided into the four subtopics of water management and cooperation in large and/or international river basin: flow regimes and water management in relation to changes in climate, river development, and land use; water quality and sediment transport management in a large river environment; and operational flow and water quality forecasting. Both the general problem and organizational and operational aspects were investigated.