Using of hydrological model and geospatial tool to assess climate change impact on the hydropower potential of the White Bandama watershed in Côte d’Ivoire (West Africa)

This study was conducted in the White Bandama watershed (WBW) in Côte d’Ivoire (West Africa). The objective is to assess the impacts of future climate change (CC) on the hydropower potential (HPP) of the WBW. The methodology is based on coupling the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrological model with the Geographic Information System (GIS) QGIS to assess HPP on streams and evaluate the impacts of future CC on HPP of the watershed. Historical and climate projection data (precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature) for a set of three Regional Climate Models (RCM) from CORDEX-AFRICA (CCCma-CanRCM4, CCLM4-8-17 and REMO 2009) under RCP 4.5 were used. The biases of the ensemble mean were corrected by the Delta-change method. The relative change of streamflow discharge and HPP was assessed as the relative difference between the projection periods (2041-2070 and 2071-2100) and the reference period (1976-2005). The results showed a total of 22 future hydropower potential sites in the watershed. These sites were identified, geolocated and classified according to their potential capacity of generation in 82% as small (1 MW-25 MW potential capacity), 9% as medium (25 MW-100 MW potential capacity) and 9% as large (more than 100 MW potential capacity) hydropower. The climate models’ ensemble projected an upward trend for both the annual mean discharge of rivers and HPP of the WBW according to RCP 4.5 for the periods 2041-2070 and 2071-2100. The variation in flow rates is projected to have a positive impact on the HPP of the WBW. On the annual cycle, the months of August and September will record the highest monthly mean flows between 150 and 200 m³/s while the months from November to April will record low monthly mean flows on the WBW.