Quantification of human impact on water, sediment, and nutrient fluxes at the global scale demands characterization of reservoirs with an accuracy that is presently unavailable. This letter presents a new method, based on virtual dam placement, to make accurate estimations of area-volume relationships of large reservoirs, using solely readily available elevation data. The new method is based on regional similarity of area-volume relationships. The essence of the method is that virtual reservoirs are created in the vicinity of an existing reservoir to derive area-volume relationships for the existing reservoir. The derived area-volume relationships reproduced in situ bathymetric data well. An intercomparison for twelve reservoirs resulted in an average R2 = 0.93. This is a significant improvement on estimates using the best existing global regression model, which gives R2 = 0.54 for the same set of reservoirs.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2016GL069816

Determining water reservoir characteristics with global elevation data

Bathymetric survey of Lake Naivasha and its satellite Lake Oloiden in Kenya; using acoustic profiling system

Sediment distribution and accumulation in Lake Naivasha, Kenya over the past 50 years

Implementation of comparative detection approaches for the accurate assessment of sediment thickness and sediment volume in the Passaúna Reservoir.

Relocation of soft mud deposits: An example from the Archipelago Sea, northern Baltic Sea

The Cerro Prieto dam, a relatively small water reservoir in NE Mexico, is one of the main resources of potable water for Monterrey, a city with a population of about four million inhabitants. A high resolution seismic study using non-linear parametric sub-bottom echo-sounder SES-2000 was carried out in this water reservoir. High resolution acoustic data interpretation shows that the thickness of recent sediments due to siltation of the reservoir reaches 3.5-4.0 m. It shows a high recent sedimentation rate (1-2 up to 14 cm/ year). Based on the echo-sounder data, the first bathymetric map and a digital model of recent sediment thickness were designed. A significant (5-12%) difference between the volume capacity value used by National Commission of Water (CNA) and acoustic survey results was revealed. Differences between the CNA and acoustic data indicate storage losses from 12-17 up to 30 million cubic meters. The results obtained through study such as this one, could be useful to improve a water resources management.

http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/geoint/v53n1/v53n1a3.pdf

Jens Lowag

Papers

Bottom topography, recent sedimentation and water volume of the Cerro Prieto Dam, NE Mexico