Hydrologic design under changing climate, Day 2, Session 2, 14/06/2022

In this session, how human influence has led to climate extremes in every region across the globe. Continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle which include global monsoon precipitation. Further in this session challenges that will be faced in coping up the climate change with the existing infrastructure such as maintaining water level in dam to get corresponding head to the turbine in hydropower generation unit was discussed. How dams contribute to global warming was also discussed. Roughly 1.3% of world’s human greenhouse gases are produced from reservoirs. Though dams contribute to pollution but it was also pointed out that sea level rise was controlled by dams from 1940’s as tremendous amount of water is stored in the dam. This session also covered the operational function and need of dam construction. Reservoir regulation procedure also known as rule curve which is nothing but the criteria and guidelines regarding the storage and releases of water and how it is different in different regions was deliberated. How climate change and dams together cause destructive consequences were covered in the session. Hydro climatological extremes such as extreme precipitation, extreme wind and temperature action on dam and its consequences were delivered in this session. The concept of Forecast Informed Reservoir Operation (FIRO) as solution to the climate change effect on dam and how an adaptive water control plan can be drawn from this concept was discussed. At the end of the session it was concluded discussing the incidents of dam failure and risk assessment.