Dam operation Model as a part of Integrated Water Resource Management in Nam Ngum River Basin, Lao PDR

Abstract

The construction of dams and reservoirs for hydropower generation has been increasing in major river basins around the world. These dams store huge amounts of water thereby reducing the streamflow in the low-lying regions. Such changed seasonality of streamflow has various socio-economic and environmental consequences. Downstream dwellers are left with reduced water for their daily lives, irrigation, fisheries, and ecological services, resulting in conflicts. This paper aims to study the benefit loss of downstream communities caused by the operation of a huge reservoir in the upstream area for hydropower purposes. The benefits are calculated in terms of economic benefit through hydropower, irrigation, fisheries in both upstream and downstream communities through simulation of socio-hydraulic changes after the reservoir operation. The study area is located in Nam Ngum River Basin, a tributary of the Mekong River in Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR). The Nam Ngum 1 Reservoir and its downstream region, which includes the capital city “Vientiane Capital” will be studied. Nam Ngum 1 Reservoir is the largest and oldest reservoir of Lao PDR storing about 8.5 billion m³ of water. The methodology includes 2 operations: reservoir operations and economic benefit calculations. The results obtained from the simulation will certainly help to address the economic problems associated with an uneven share of water and will help in the further investigation and adoption of integrated water resource management in other regional, national or transboundary scales as well.

 

Keywords: dam operation model, integrated water resource management, benefit loss, reservoir operations