Hydro-morphodynamic responses of rivers to the construction of hydropower dams: a case study – the Kor River, Iran

ABSTRACT

The impact of dams on fluvial hydro-morphology in arid and semi-arid regions, such as the Middle East, has received little attention, although such fluvial corridors represent major sources of livelihood for the local population. In this study, the influence of the Mollasadra Dam on the hydro-morphological conditions of the Iranian Kor River is numerically investigated using iRIC MFlow_02, by considering different flooding conditions. Simulating different scenarios with and without the dam, and looking at key parameters like flow rate and velocity, sediment transport rate, and bed topography, it is evident that the dam significantly reduces the water discharge and the relative flow velocities, while it has a relatively low impact on the bed morphology and sediment transport. This can be ascribed to the fact that the Kor River is a capacity-limited watercourse, characterized by rather coarse material and reduced sediment transport.

KEYWORDS:

• dam
• iRIC model
• Kor River
• numerical modelling
• river morphodynamics
• sediment transport

Editor A. Castellarin Associate Editor T. Heckmann

Editor A. Castellarin Associate Editor T. Heckmann

Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers and Associate Editor Prof. Tobias Heckmann for their help in improving our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Data will be provided by the first author upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2023.2230197

Additional information

Funding

The present results were obtained within the project supported by the Ulam NAWA Programme, grant number [BPN/ULM/2022/1/00022/U/00001]. The work of MN was supported by a subsidy from the Polish Ministry of Education and Science for the Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences.