The impact of hydropower plants on the water regime
- Authors: Anja HORVAT, Mitja BRILLY, Andrej KRYŽANOWSKI
- Citation: Acta hydrotechnica, vol. 24, no. 41, pp. 47-66, 2006.
- Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impacts of hydropower plants of Mavčiče and Medvode on the water regime of the plain Kranjsko-Sorško polje, Slovenia. Both hydropower plants are situated on the Sava River between Kranj and Medvode on an aquifer layer of variable thickness. The hydropower plants have changed the river regime into a lake regime. As a result, the infiltration of the Sava into groundwater increased, while sediment transport was cut off. We prepared the water balance of the Sava River, a groundwater model of Kranjsko-Sorško polje using Modflow and a comparison of volume of both reservoirs. We established the flow rate and directions of groundwater flow, a larger inflow at the Medvode hydropower plant, which is a consequence of groundwater drainage downstream from the hydropower plant Mavčiče, and considerable volume change in the Mavčiče reservoir. Due to sedimentation the infiltration of the Sava is decreasing, which was demonstrated with measurements of piesometric pressures.
- Keywords: hydropower plant impacts, Modflow, groundwater, water balance, sedimentation, Sava river
- Full text: a41ah.pdf