Assessment of the possibility of implementing small retention reservoirs in terms of the need to increase water resources

Abstract

Currently, due to reduced water resources, there is a need to build reservoirs in Poland. Reservoirs perform important economic, natural and recreational functions in the environment, improve water balance and contribute to fl ood protection. In the construction of reservoirs, it is necessary to consider not only hydrological issues related to water quantity, but also its quality, silting, and many other factors. Therefore, the physiographic, hydrological, hydrochemical, and hydrogeological conditions of the projected reservoirs have to be taken into account to limit the potential negative eff ects of decisions to build them. In order to assess the suitability of eight projected small water retention reservoirs (to increase water resources in the Barycz River catchment in Lower Silesia and Greater Poland provinces, this article takes into account hydrological indicators (efficiency of the reservoir, operation time, dependence on the intensity of silting, and flood hazard indicator), water quality (phosphorus load and nitrogen load), hydrogeological conditions (type of geological substratum for the reservoir basin and filtration losses), and safety of the reservoir dam. To develop a theoretical model describing the regularities between the indicators, multivariate statistical techniques were used, including the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Factor Analysis (FA). In order to assess the reservoirs, a synthetic indicator was developed to compare the reservoirs with each other in relation to the conditions. The Cluster Analysis (CA) was used for typological classification of homogeneous locations of projected small retention reservoirs. Own research procedure for identification of the most advantageous water reservoirs, with the use of multivariate statistical techniques, may be used as a tool supporting decision making in other facilities intended for implementation in provincial projects of small retention.

Keywords

• small water reservoirs
• projected reservoirs
• rivers
• hydrology
• water quality
• planning of sustainable water management
• multivariate statistical analysis
• typology of reservoirs