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Assessment of Silting Degree and Usable Lifetime of Small Reservoirs

2015; Wiley; Volume: 64; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/ird.1921

1531-0353

Michalec Bogusław, Wałęga Andrzej,

Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes

Abstract Statistical analysis of the parameters describing the silting process in 53 small reservoirs, located in 4 catchments in different geographical regions, yielded a model explaining general relationships between mean annual silting ratio ( S A ) and silting intensity ( S i ), as defined by Ŝamov. The silting intensity ( S i ) depends mainly on the regional hydrological conditions and the capability of a drainage system to transport the sediment, and it was defined by Ŝamov as the ratio of the initial reservoir capacity ( V 0 ) to the mean annual volume of sediment flowing into the reservoir ( R ). Regional relationships between S A and capacity–watershed area ratio were also developed for water reservoirs located in four climatic regions, i.e. in the Upper Vistula Basin, in the Rio Grande Basin in North America, in Puerto Rico and in the North Caucasus. It was found that the usable lifetime, determined for reservoirs in the Upper Vistula Basin, where S A was from 0.06 to 5.08%, ranged from a few dozen to over 100 years. It was also discovered that determining the usable lifetime for small reservoirs using the Pitt and Thompson nomogram is impossible or subject to considerable error. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.