Developing water supply reservoir operating rules for large-scale hydrological modelling

Salwey, Saskia; Coxon, Gemma; Pianosi, Francesca; Lane, Rosanna; Hutton, Chris; Bliss Singer, Michael; McMillan, Hilary; Freer, Jim

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4203-2024

Articles | Volume 28, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4203-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Representation of water infrastructures in large-scale hydrological...

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4203-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 28, issue 17

Research article

|

12 Sep 2024

Research article |

| 12 Sep 2024

Developing water supply reservoir operating rules for large-scale hydrological modelling

Saskia Salwey, Gemma Coxon, Francesca Pianosi, Rosanna Lane, Chris Hutton, Michael Bliss Singer, Hilary McMillan, and Jim Freer

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4203-2024-supplement

Data sets

Inventory of reservoirs amounting to 90 % of total UK storage M. Durant and C. Counsell https://doi.org/10.5285/f5a7d56c-cea0-4f00-b159-c3788a3b2b38

Potential evapotranspiration derived from Climate Hydrology and Ecology Research Support System meteorological gridded climate observations (Hydro-PE CHESS) E. L. Robinson et al. https://doi.org/10.5285/bcec9c33-f863-464e-ac28-73b981bd40a4

HadUK-Grid gridded and regional average climate observations for the UK Met Office http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/4dc8450d889a491ebb20e724debe2dfb/

Daily Flow Data National River Flow Archive http://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/data/search

Developing water supply reservoir operating rules for large-scale hydrological modelling S. Salwey https://doi.org/10.5523/bris.3elcv1fhj0cxl2u45mmkb8y8op

Model code and software

DECIPHeR version 1.0: Dynamic fluxEs and Connectivity for Predictions of HydRology G. Coxon et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1346158

Short summary

Reservoirs are essential for water resource management and can significantly impact downstream flow. However, representing reservoirs in hydrological models can be challenging, particularly across large scales. We design a new and simple method for simulating river flow downstream of water supply reservoirs using only open-access data. We demonstrate the approach in 264 reservoir catchments across Great Britain, where we can significantly improve the simulation of reservoir-impacted flow.