Quantifying the trade-offs in re-operating dams  for the environment in the Lower Volta River

Owusu, Afua; Zatarain Salazar, Jazmin; Mul, Marloes; van der Zaag, Pieter; Slinger, Jill

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2001-2023

Articles | Volume 27, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2001-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2001-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 27, issue 10

Research article

|

26 May 2023

Research article |

| 26 May 2023

Quantifying the trade-offs in re-operating dams for the environment in the Lower Volta River

Afua Owusu, Jazmin Zatarain Salazar, Marloes Mul, Pieter van der Zaag, and Jill Slinger

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Final revised paper (published on 26 May 2023)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 04 Aug 2022)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on hess-2022-270', Anonymous Referee #1, 17 Oct 2022

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://hess.copernicus.org/preprints/hess-2022-270/hess-2022-270-RC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-270-RC1
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Afua Owusu, 27 Oct 2022
  
  The authors thank the reviewers for their insightful comments which have proved very helpful in revising the manuscript. Attached are detailed responses to the individual comments raised by each reviewer with new/modified text highlighted. In responding to reviewer 1, the specific comments are addressed before the response to the questions raised in the overall summary.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-270-AC2
RC2:
'Comment on hess-2022-270', Kevis Pachos, 19 Oct 2022

lines 365-367: The authors seem to suggest that the flood control objective is performing less well for e-flows2 and 3 (0.83 down from 0.99 in clam e-flows. This is however not shown in Figure 4. Instead Figure 4 suggests the performance of the flood control objective remains the same across all e-flows.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-270-RC2
- AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Afua Owusu, 27 Oct 2022
  
  The authors are grateful to the reviewer for highlighting the ambiguity in the text. The performance of the flood objective does remain the same, but the performance of the solution decreases for the environment objective for e-flows 2 and 3. The text has been updated to read:
  The solutions for all e-flow configurations perform well for the flood control objective even though e-flow 2 and 3 prescribe flood releases for two months of the year. As such, comparing clam e-flows to e-flows 2 and 3, there is a reduction (0.99 for clam e-flows vs. 0.83 for e-flows 2 and 3) in the performance of the ‘best environment’ solution for the latter two, as expected, showing that the requirement for floods for two months in a year in those e-flow configurations are not met.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-270-AC1

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (20 Nov 2022) by Yi He

AR by Afua Owusu on behalf of the Authors (06 Dec 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Jan 2023) by Yi He

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (25 Mar 2023)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (07 Apr 2023) by Yi He

AR by Afua Owusu on behalf of the Authors (13 Apr 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (19 Apr 2023) by Yi He

AR by Afua Owusu on behalf of the Authors (19 Apr 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (21 Apr 2023) by Yi He

AR by Afua Owusu on behalf of the Authors (21 Apr 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (23 Apr 2023) by Yi He

AR by Afua Owusu on behalf of the Authors (26 Apr 2023) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

The construction of two dams in the Lower Volta River, Ghana, adversely affected downstream riverine ecosystems and communities. In contrast, Ghana has enjoyed vast economic benefits from the dams. Herein lies the challenge; there exists a trade-off between water for river ecosystems and water for anthropogenic water demands such hydropower. In this study, we quantify these trade-offs and show that there is room for providing environmental flows under current and future climatic conditions.

Quantifying the trade-offs in re-operating dams for the environment in the Lower Volta River

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Interactive discussion

Peer review completion

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection