Environmental Flow Scenarios for a Regulated River System: Projecting Catchment-Wide Ecosystem Benefits and Consequences for Hydroelectric Production

Sammanfattning

To enable prioritization among measures for ecological restoration, knowing the expected benefits and consequences of implementation is imperative but rarely explicitly quantified. We developed a novel method to prioritize among environmental flow measures to rehabilitate ecosystems in the Ume River catchment in northern Sweden, a river system heavily regulated for hydropower production. Our strategy was to identify measures with minimal impact on hydropower production while providing substantial environmental benefits. Based on field surveys of remaining natural values and potential for ecological rehabilitation, we quantified the projected gain in habitat area of implementing environmental flows for target organism groups, for example, lotic fish species and riparian vegetation, along the whole river length. We quantified the consequences for hydropower production by identifying a set of hydropower operational rules reflecting the constraints added by environmental flows. We then used production optimization software to calculate changes in hydropower production and revenues. Implementing restrictions on zero-flow events by mandating minimum discharge at all run-of-river hydropower stations and allocating 1%-12% of mean annual discharge to bypassed reaches in the entire catchment would result in a 2.1% loss of annual electricity production. Adding flow to fishways would increase the loss to 3.1% per year. With implementation of more natural water-level fluctuations in run-of-river impoundments, the loss increases to 3.8%. These actions would increase the habitat for lotic species like the grayling Thymallus more than threefold and increase the area of riparian vegetation by about 66%. Our method forms a basis for ongoing implementation of nationwide environmental rehabilitation schemes.

Nyckelord

consequences on electricity production; cost-benefit analyses; environmental benefits estimated by habitat; hydropower optimization software; regulated rivers and hydropower; river restoration and environmental flow assessment at catchment level

Publicerad i

Water Resources Research
2022, volym: 58, nummer: 1, artikelnummer: e2021WR030297
Utgivare: AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION

SLU författare

• Widén, Åsa

  • Institutionen för vilt, fisk och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    
  • Umeå Universitet

• Degerman, Erik

  • Institutionen för akvatiska resurser (SLU Aqua), Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG7 Hållbar energi för alla
SDG12 Hållbar konsumtion och produktion

UKÄ forskningsämne

Oceanografi, hydrologi, vattenresurser
Ekologi

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030297

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116208