Impact of reservoirs on river discharge and irrigation water supply during the 20th century

Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative estimation of the impact of reservoirs on discharge and irrigation water supply during the 20th century at global, continental, and river basin scale. Compared to a natural situation the combined effect of reservoir operation and irrigation extractions decreased mean annual discharge to oceans and significantly changed the timing of this discharge. For example, in Europe, May discharge decreased by 10%, while in February it increased by 8%. At the end of the 20th century, reservoir operations and irrigation extractions decreased annual global discharge by about 2.1% (930 km 3 yr−1). Simulation results show that reservoirs contribute significantly to irrigation water supply in many regions. Basins that rely heavily on reservoir water are the Colorado and Columbia River basins in the United States and several large basins in India, China, and central Asia (e.g., in the Krishna and Huang He basins, reservoirs more than doubled surface water supply). Continents gaining the most are North America, Africa, and Asia, where reservoirs supplied 57, 22, and 360 km 3 yr−1 respectively between 1981–2000, which is in all cases 40% more than the availability in the situation without reservoirs. Globally, the irrigation water supply from reservoirs increased from around 18 km 3 yr−1 (adding 5% to surface water supply) at the beginning of the 20th century to 460 km 3 yr−1 (adding almost 40% to surface water supply) at the end of the 20th century. The analysis is performed using a newly developed and validated reservoir operation scheme within a global‐scale hydrology and vegetation model (LPJmL).