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Impacts of Dam Removal on Water Quality: Case Study of Zonouz Dam

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Abstract

For decades, dams around the world have been removed due to safety concerns, losses in reservoir volume, river restoration, and other reasons. Water quality changes after years of dam operation due to the presence of different phenomena in dam reservoirs. So, it is essential to examine water quality downstream following dam removal. The present study analyzes and predicts the short-term effects of removing the dam on water quality, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, and nitrate. The Zonouz Dam in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, is investigated as a case study. In this study, HEC-RAS is used to simulate water quality parameters downstream. The reservoir’s drawdown is assumed to be performed by releasing water from its bottom outlet for water quality simulations. Three different scenarios were used for the dam’s bottom outlet based on the ratio of openings (opening ratio = 0.5, 1, 1–0.5). Results show that in the first days of dam removal, the downstream river water temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration decreased by 3 °C and 3 mg/l, respectively. However, it increased in the next days, and finally, it reached 24 °C and 8.5 mg/l. There is also a decreasing trend in nitrate concentration over time. In the studied case, nitrate concentration showed a value of 1.13 mg/l, which fell to 0.7 mg/l on the last day of the reservoir’s drawdown. In addition, the data after dam removal revealed that the maximum amount of “qualitative parameters” was transferred to long distances from the dam with a very small change in concentration (in this study, these parameters were transported 18 km from the dam).

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Abbreviations

\(A_{T}\) :

Cross-sectional area

Q :

Flow discharge

x :

Distant along the channel

\(q_{{\text{l}}}\) :

The lateral inflow

v :

Velocity

g :

Acceleration of gravity

\({{\partial Z} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\partial Z} {\partial x}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\partial x}}{ }\) :

The water surface slope

\(S_{{\text{f}}}\) :

Friction slope

V :

Volume of water quality cell

\(\varphi\) :

Concentration of water quality parameter

\(\Gamma\) :

Dispersion coefficient

S :

Sources or sinks

I i :

Sub-index for ith water quality parameter

W i :

Weight associated with ith water quality parameter

n :

Number of water quality parameters

Osat :

Dissolved oxygen concentration at saturation

\(\beta_{2}^{*}\) :

Rate constant: NO2 → NO3

KNR:

Nitrification inhibition coefficient

F 1 :

\(F_{1} = \frac{{P_{{\text{N}}} {\text{NH}}_{4} }}{{P_{{\text{N}}} {\text{NH}}_{4} + \left( {1 - P_{{\text{N}}} } \right){\text{NO}}_{3} }}\)

α 1 :

Fraction algal biomass that is nitrogen

μ :

Local growth rate for algae

α 3 :

O2 production per unit algal growth

α 4 :

O2 uptake per unit algal growth

ρ :

Algal local respiration rate

\(K_{4}^{*}\) :

Sediment oxygen demand rate

d :

Average channel depth

α 5 :

O2 uptake per unit NH4 oxidized

β 1 :

Rate constant: NH4 → NO2

\(K_{1}^{*}\) :

O2 uptake per unit NO2 oxidized

\(K_{2}^{*}\) :

Deoxygenation rate

P N :

Preference factor for ammonia

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Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Parisa Pourabedini, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Banihashemi & Zahra Akbari

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  1. Parisa Pourabedini
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  2. Seyyed Mohammad Ali Banihashemi
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Correspondence to Parisa Pourabedini.

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Pourabedini, P., Banihashemi, S.M.A. & Akbari, Z. Impacts of Dam Removal on Water Quality: Case Study of Zonouz Dam. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-024-01358-0

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