Numerical analysis of influence of climate change on turbidity in reservoirs caused by flood events

Abstract

 In recent years torrential downpour occurrs frequently due to the effect of climate change. Because of this, excess of high turbidity in reservoirs and long term persistence of turbidity has recently been regarded as a serious problem. Behavior of turbidity in reservoirs is greatly influenced by the condition of thermal stratification and grainsize patterns of suspended sediment. In this study, we applied a vertical 1-dimension hydraulic model for future prediction of turbidity in reservoirs under climate change.
 As a result, we revealed that turbidity in reservoirs can become higher due to the increase of inflow turbidity caused by increased rainfall in the future. We also found that changes of weather conditions of temperature and solar radiation will influence on turbidity in reservoirs, and hydraulic turnover rate of a reservoir can be a determining factor on duration of high turbidity discharge from reservoirs.