Flow modelling in a high mountain valley equipped with hydropower plants: Rio Zongo Valley, Cordillera Real, Bolivia

Abstract

Abstract Water management modelling of a hydroelectric system in a tropical high mountain context is presented. The study zone and the hydraulic network are described and the water management strategy analysed. Three different models are combined to describe the complexity of the specific hydrometeorological context: the spatial distribution of the climatic data over the river basin, the surface energy balance influence on the runoff production of a river basin and the surface flow transfer modelling through a hydraulic system. The atmospheric forcing spatial distribution is derived from the available climatic data records. The runoff production on the catchment's slopes is simulated using the land‐surface scheme ISBA. The system dynamics tool Vensim ® is used to simulate the hydraulic dynamics in the hydropower plants system. A short description of the three modelling methods is given, followed by the description of the coupled model construction. The simulation results of the ISBA land‐surface scheme on both a non‐glacial an a glacial sub‐basin during a 17 month period are presented. After pointing out the necessity of the water management model to simulate the river discharge at the outlet of the basin, the main reservoirs, simulated water level variations are shown. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.