Role of water storage reservoirs management and flood mitigation in climate change conditions

Abstract

The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly pronounced in all aspects of human activity, but are especially evident in the field of water management. One of its most significant consequences is the increasingly pronounced temporal variability of river flows - frequent floods with increasing peak flows and long periods of low water flow. In such conditions, existing flood protection measures are often insufficient to secure the protected area. That is why flood protection systems must be constantly developed, considering their construction, as well as improvement of management measures. The paper presents the consequences of climate change on water resources on the territory of the Serbia. The main principles of water management in such conditions are defined, as well as the role of the estimation of flood hydrographs. The possibilities of applying mathematical models in order to improve the role of active flood protection measures of existing reservoirs are presented. The analyses are performed for water resources systems in the Trebišnjica and Vrbas river basins in the Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The main task was to analyse the reduction of peak flow in the urban areas downstream from the analysed reservoirs, taking into account the uncontrolled part of the watershed (between the urban area and the reservoir), from which the torrential tributaries originate. Performed analyses show that reservoirs (even of relatively small active storage) can significantly reduce the peak flow during flood events.