Impacts of hydropeaking and thermopeaking on the downstream habitat in the Dal River, Korea

This study investigated the impacts of both hydropeaking and thermopeaking on the downstream habitat. The study area is a 2.3 km long reach located downstream from the Goesan Dam in the Dal River, Korea. To assess such impacts, physical habitat simulations were carried out. The CMS-Flow model was used for the computations of flow and water temperature, and the GEP model for the habitat simulation. The above figure shows the CSI distributions in the winter. In the figure, in order to investigate the impact of hydropeaking, the CSI distribution for the drought flow is provided. In addition, the CSI distributions obtained from the physical habitat simulations with and without temperature for the physical habitat variables are compared. It is found that hydropeaking operations significantly decrease the CSI when compared with the CSI distribution for the constant flow and the inclusion of the water temperature in the physical habitat simulation further decreases the CSI.105