ABSTRACT
Dams and reservoirs represent a strategic infrastructure from an energetic viewpoint and their future operativity maintenance is a challenge. Since they interact directly with the surrounding environment, they may encounter siltation problems which undermine the proper functionality. A physical quantification of geo-hydrological processes at the basin scale is a necessary task that hydropower stakeholders require for maintaining the infrastructure functionality. This is particularly true under the projected future climate change scenario where extreme events intensification is expected with high confidence.
The new model concept called CRHyME (Climatic Rainfall Hydrogeological Modelling Experiment) is here presented. This model represents an extended version of the classical spatially distributed rainfall-runoff models. CRHyME model has been written in Python language and it aims to model the effect of geo-hydrological processes occurring at a watershed scale. Knowing the location of a reservoir, the model can quantify the flood and sediment income from the upstream catchment, reconstruct past events or deal with future climate projection.
The CRHyME model, although it is already operational, is continuously updated in order to improve its performance and expand its possible use. Remarkable results have been obtained for the study case of the Valtellina catchment in the Alpine region (northern Lombardy, Italy) where six reservoir siltation ratios have been estimated. CRHyME was also applied considering three different climatic models from the EURO-CORDEX program. The results have highlighted a probable intensification of the geo-hydrological processes across the Alps leading to possible aggravation of reservoir siltation.
