Abstract

Sedimentation is a serious problem in the operations of reservoirs. In Taiwan, the situation became worse after the Chi-Chi Earthquake recorded on 21 September 1999. The sediment trap efficiency in several regional reservoirs has been sharply increased, adversely affecting the operations on water supplies. According to the field record, the average annual sediment deposition observed in several regional reservoirs in Taiwan has been increased. For instance, the typhoon event recorded in 2008 at the Wushe Reservoir, Taiwan, produced a 3 m sediment deposit upstream of the dam. The remaining storage capacity in the Wushe Reservoir was reduced to 35.9% or a volume of 53.79 million m3 for flood water detention in 2010. It is urgent that research should be conducted to understand the sediment movement in the Wushe Reservoir. In this study, a scale physical model was built to reproduce the flood flow through the reservoir, investigate the long-term depositional pattern, and evaluate sediment trap efficiency. This allows us to estimate the residual life of the reservoir by proposing a modification of Brune’s method. It can be presented to predict the lifespan of Taiwan reservoirs due to higher applicability in both the physical model and the observed data.

Highlights

  • Issues of water resources have been determined as a priority in recent years

  • In an effort to reduce reservoir sedimentation and the impacts of sediment deficit downstream from dams, various measures have been applied for sediment reduction such as the turbidity current venting technique implemented in Lake Mead, USA [2,3,4], Guanting Reservoir, China [5,6], or the sediment bypass tunnel built at the Asahi Reservoir, Japan [7]

  • Reservoirs in Taiwan, the Wushe Reservoir, observed to have very serious deposition problems, was of reservoir sedimentation caused by natural disasters is highlighted in Taiwan

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Summary

Introduction

Issues of water resources have been determined as a priority in recent years. Water scarcity is an urgent threat globally. Water scarcity could be solved with the improvement of reservoir operations. Reservoirs are often equipped with multiple functions, including water supply, irrigation, flood control, power generation, recreation, and navigation. Water supply is a most important operation and highly depends on the reservoir storage capacity. The capacity of large reservoirs in the world had decreased 5% from 1901 to 2010 [1]. As the world’s population increases, reservoir sedimentation will pose more challenges in the utilization of water resources. Yu [8] indicated that the storage capacity of Taiwan reservoirs has declined to

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