Evaluating sediment Delivery Impacts on Reservoirs in changing climaTe and society aCROSS scales and sectors (DIRT-X).

According to the ICOLD database from 2010, over 45000 large dams (H > 15m) in the world provide important but vulnerable services such as hydropower generation, drinking water supply, irrigation, flood protection, and recreation. These services are threatened by changing climate and socioeconomic conditions through changes in the hydrological process and potentially increasing erosion the catchment and the consequent sedimentation of reservoirs. The project DIRT-X addresses the question of how the changing climate and socioeconomic conditions influence water reservoirs and the services they provide to different economic sectors. DIRT-X investigates cross-sectoral and cross-scale aspects of the climate change impacts and integration of climate impact models with economic models. We analyze hydrological and hydro-morphological processes across spatial scales (from local through regional to global) and temporal scales (from sub-daily through daily, intra-, and inter-annual to long-term) under the current and future climate and socioeconomics in order to increase the quality, reliability, and usability of hydrologic models for climate services. A special focus is given to assessment of interactions between the energy and water sectors. The local assessments are conducted for three case studies located in three different countries (Albania, Austria, and Sweden). By combining local scale analyses with regional and global scale analyses of hydrological processes and relevant socio-economic developments we aim to achieve better understanding and quantification of the impacts and uncertainties inherent in climate impact assessments, especially as they relate to scale and resolution.     «

According to the ICOLD database from 2010, over 45000 large dams (H > 15m) in the world provide important but vulnerable services such as hydropower generation, drinking water supply, irrigation, flood protection, and recreation. These services are threatened by changing climate and socioeconomic conditions through changes in the hydrological process and potentially increasing erosion the catchment and the consequent sedimentation of reservoirs. The project DIRT-X addresses the question of how t...     »