(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1997-03)
Brumbelow, Kelly; Georgakakos, Aristidis P.
Many species of fish have suffered detrimental
impacts due to the construction and operation of reservoirs.
Life-scientists have utilized three basic methods to attempt
to include the needs of riverine ecology in the formulation of
reservoir operation policies. (1) Beginning in the 1970's,
discharge-based methods used heuristics to determine
minimum allowable streamfiows to protect riverine life. (2)
Habitat-based models were developed after the shortcomings
of minimum allowable streamflow recommendations were
realized and as greater knowledge of fish biology and
ecology was gained. These models used hydraulic modeling
and species- and lifestage-specific habitat preferences to
determine quantity and quality of habitat as a function of
streamflow. (3) Individual-based models have emerged in
the 1990's as further understanding of fish life-processes has
accumulated these models track the daily actions and
movements of individual organisms. The State of Georgia
currently uses a variety of discharge-based methods to
determine minimum allowable strearnflows. The
opportunity now exists to utilize many new technologies to
integrate ecological and other "traditional" objectives in a
real-time, operational decision support system. The
principal technologies to be exploited include the ELQG
algorithm individual-based models, computational fluid
dynamics, and geographic information systems.