Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow
Excessive nutrient loadings from drainage areas and resulting water quality degradation in rivers are the major environmental issues around the world. The water quality further deteriorates for the large seasonal variation of precipitation and water flow. Environmental decision makers have been expl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/4/508 |
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| author | Young-Jun Jo Jung-Hun Song Younggu Her Giorgio Provolo Jina Beom Minhyuk Jeung Young-Joo Kim Seung-Hwan Yoo Kwang-Sik Yoon |
| author_facet | Young-Jun Jo Jung-Hun Song Younggu Her Giorgio Provolo Jina Beom Minhyuk Jeung Young-Joo Kim Seung-Hwan Yoo Kwang-Sik Yoon |
| author_sort | Young-Jun Jo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Excessive nutrient loadings from drainage areas and resulting water quality degradation in rivers are the major environmental issues around the world. The water quality further deteriorates for the large seasonal variation of precipitation and water flow. Environmental decision makers have been exploring affordable and effective ways of securing environmental flow (EF) to improve the water quality, especially in dry seasons, and agricultural reservoirs have attracted the attention of policymakers as an alternative source of EF. This study proposed an analysis framework for assessing the EF supply potential of agricultural reservoirs as alternative sources of EF. A reservoir water balance model was prepared to mathematically represent the reservoir water balance and quantify temporal variations of the amount of water available for the EF supply. The simulation model was designed to explicitly consider inflow from the upstream drainage areas, irrigation water requirement, and hydrological processes happening in the reservoirs. The proposed framework was applied to four agricultural reservoirs located in South Korea to evaluate its efficiency. Results showed that the additional storage capacity added by the dam reinforcement enabled the study reservoirs to satisfy both needs, EF and irrigation water supply. The surplus capacity turned out to be enough to satisfy various EF supply scenarios at the annual time scale. However, the current operation plans do not consider the seasonal variations of reservoir hydrology and thus cannot supply EF without violating the original operational goal, irrigation water, especially in dry months. The results demonstrate that it is necessary to consider the temporal variations of EF when developing reservoir operation rules and plans to secure EF. This study also highlights the unconventional roles of agricultural reservoirs as resources for improved environmental quality. The methods presented in this study are expected to be a useful tool for the assessment of agricultural reservoirs’ EF supply potential. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:51:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f5e5451485b64ac280b3720337fc44ec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:51:04Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-f5e5451485b64ac280b3720337fc44ec2023-12-11T17:12:25ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412021-02-0113450810.3390/w13040508Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental FlowYoung-Jun Jo0Jung-Hun Song1Younggu Her2Giorgio Provolo3Jina Beom4Minhyuk Jeung5Young-Joo Kim6Seung-Hwan Yoo7Kwang-Sik Yoon8Korea Rural Community Corporation, Naju, Jeollanam-do 58327, KoreaDepartment of Agricultural and Biological Engineering & Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead, FL 33031, USADepartment of Agricultural and Biological Engineering & Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead, FL 33031, USADepartment of Agricultural and Environmental Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, ItalyDepartment of Rural and Biosystems Engineering & Education and Research Unit for Climate-Smart Reclaimed Tideland Agriculture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, KoreaDepartment of Rural and Biosystems Engineering & Education and Research Unit for Climate-Smart Reclaimed Tideland Agriculture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, KoreaDepartment of Cadastre and Civil Engineering, VISION College of Jeonju, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do 55069, KoreaDepartment of Rural and Biosystems Engineering & Education and Research Unit for Climate-Smart Reclaimed Tideland Agriculture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, KoreaDepartment of Rural and Biosystems Engineering & Education and Research Unit for Climate-Smart Reclaimed Tideland Agriculture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, KoreaExcessive nutrient loadings from drainage areas and resulting water quality degradation in rivers are the major environmental issues around the world. The water quality further deteriorates for the large seasonal variation of precipitation and water flow. Environmental decision makers have been exploring affordable and effective ways of securing environmental flow (EF) to improve the water quality, especially in dry seasons, and agricultural reservoirs have attracted the attention of policymakers as an alternative source of EF. This study proposed an analysis framework for assessing the EF supply potential of agricultural reservoirs as alternative sources of EF. A reservoir water balance model was prepared to mathematically represent the reservoir water balance and quantify temporal variations of the amount of water available for the EF supply. The simulation model was designed to explicitly consider inflow from the upstream drainage areas, irrigation water requirement, and hydrological processes happening in the reservoirs. The proposed framework was applied to four agricultural reservoirs located in South Korea to evaluate its efficiency. Results showed that the additional storage capacity added by the dam reinforcement enabled the study reservoirs to satisfy both needs, EF and irrigation water supply. The surplus capacity turned out to be enough to satisfy various EF supply scenarios at the annual time scale. However, the current operation plans do not consider the seasonal variations of reservoir hydrology and thus cannot supply EF without violating the original operational goal, irrigation water, especially in dry months. The results demonstrate that it is necessary to consider the temporal variations of EF when developing reservoir operation rules and plans to secure EF. This study also highlights the unconventional roles of agricultural reservoirs as resources for improved environmental quality. The methods presented in this study are expected to be a useful tool for the assessment of agricultural reservoirs’ EF supply potential.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/4/508irrigationreservoir water balancereservoir operationhydrological modelingfour major rivers restoration projecttank model |
| spellingShingle | Young-Jun Jo Jung-Hun Song Younggu Her Giorgio Provolo Jina Beom Minhyuk Jeung Young-Joo Kim Seung-Hwan Yoo Kwang-Sik Yoon Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow Water irrigation reservoir water balance reservoir operation hydrological modeling four major rivers restoration project tank model |
| title | Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow |
| title_full | Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow |
| title_fullStr | Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow |
| title_short | Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow |
| title_sort | assessing the potential of agricultural reservoirs as the source of environmental flow |
| topic | irrigation reservoir water balance reservoir operation hydrological modeling four major rivers restoration project tank model |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/4/508 |
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