Incorporating ecological requirement into multipurpose reservoir operating rule curves for adaptation to climate change

•We incorporate ecological requirement into multipurpose reservoir operating rule curves.•We explore how multipurpose reservoir operating rule curves adapt to future climate change.•Ecological supply water operation will alleviate negative effect of dam on river ecosystem.

SummaryOperating rule curves have been widely applied to reservoir operation, due to their ease of implementation. However, these curves excluding ecological requirement are generally derived from observed or synthetic flows and have rarely been determined by future flows under climate change. This paper develops an integrated adaptive optimization model (IAOM) for derivation of multipurpose reservoir operating rule curves including ecological operating rule curve under future climate change. Steps in the proposed IAOM include: (1) weather generator module to generate feasible future climate conditions, (2) VIC model as the hydrological simulation module to generate streamflows from those future weather conditions, and (3) multipurpose reservoir optimization module to determine the optimal reservoir operations to deal with climate change. China's Danjiangkou reservoir in Han River basin is selected for a case study. The results demonstrate that the IAOM provides optimal multipurpose reservoir operating rule curves that reflect the hydrologic characteristics of future climate change. Ecological supply water operation will alleviate negative effect of dam on river ecosystem without reducing conservation benefits and flood control standard. Therefore, they can consult with reservoir administrators if it is useful results for operations.