Determining water reservoir characteristics with global elevation data

van Bemmelen, C. W T; Mann, M.; de Ridder, M.P.; Rutten, M.M.; van de Giesen, N.C.

doi:10.1002/2016GL069816

Determining water reservoir characteristics with global elevation data

Title

Determining water reservoir characteristics with global elevation data

Author

van Bemmelen, C. W T
Mann, M.
de Ridder, M.P. (TU Delft Coastal Engineering)
Rutten, M.M. (TU Delft Water Resources)
van de Giesen, N.C. (TU Delft Water Resources)

Date

2016

Abstract

Quantification of human impact on water, sediment, and nutrient fluxes at the global scale demands characterization of reservoirs with an accuracy that is presently unavailable. This letter presents a new method, based on virtual dam placement, to make accurate estimations of area-volume relationships of large reservoirs, using solely readily available elevation data. The new method is based on regional similarity of area-volume relationships. The essence of the method is that virtual reservoirs are created in the vicinity of an existing reservoir to derive area-volume relationships for the existing reservoir. The derived area-volume relationships reproduced in situ bathymetric data well. An intercomparison for twelve reservoirs resulted in an average R² = 0.93. This is a significant improvement on estimates using the best existing global regression model, which gives R² = 0.54 for the same set of reservoirs.

Subject

characteristics
global elevation data
large dams
reservoirs
water management

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8bb817b8-4420-4841-af19-66a0aa369cd2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069816

Embargo date

2018-02-01

ISSN

0094-8276

Source

Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (21), 11,278-11,286