Data rescue of reservoir management data on the example of Bleiloch Reservoir, Germany

Reservoirs have a great influence on the flow regime of rivers. Time series of dam management can help to quantify this influence and attribute the causes of flow regime changes. Often, records of dam management in the 20th century are scattered across many different locations and are not available in digitized form. Using the example of the Bleilochtalsperre, the largest reservoir in Germany, we show how the digitization of handwritten records can be done efficiently by using contemporary tools and which conventions for data formats and metadata formats can be used. The practical example is intended to serve as a blueprint to support initiatives that increase the dataset of the International Data Centre on Hydrology of Lakes and Reservoirs (HYDROLARE), which is a WMO data center within the Global Terrestrial Network - Hydrology (GTN-H).