According to the fourth IPCC’s assessment report, flood damages due to heavy rainfall events are expected to increase. In order to reduce those damages, an integrated dam management becomes a crucial issue. The present study attempts to support dam operators in flood control using meso-scale quantitative precipitation forecast. The spatial variability of the forcing data is captured by a distributed biosphere hydrological model with an embedded dam network operation. The developed system was applied to the upper Tone reservoir system with three existing dams. Additionally, the effect of Yamba dam operation (i.e. nowadays under construction) was simulated. The results indicate that further flood peak reduction is possible using joint operation without sacrificing the storage volume. The usage of distributed biosphere hydrological models seems to be the pathway to a closer interaction with regional atmospheric models.
Peer-reviewed publication