Author(s): U. G. Kobler; M. Schmid; A. Wuest

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Climate change; Pumped-storage; Stratification; Temperature; Hydrodynamic modeling

Abstract: The coupled effects of climate change and pumped-storage (PS) operation on two connected water bodies were assessed using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model. Climate scenarios were developed based on the CH2011 scenarios for Switzerland using a weather generator. The preliminary results show that the warming of the epilimnion temperature of the upper reservoir (~0.375°C per decade for mid of August) is almost independent of the PS scenario. Conversely, the warming of the hypolimnion temperatures is significantly larger for the scenarios with PS (~0.25°C per decade for mid of August) than for the near natural state without PS (~0.05°C per decade). The duration of summer stratification is projected to increase by ~3-5 days per decade, whereas winter stratification is shortened by ~3 days per decade or even completely eliminated for an extended PS scenario.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/978-981-11-2731-1_068-cd

Year: 2018