Climate change may alter the precipitation pattern significantly. It is foreseen that extreme rainfall events followed by floods will increase in both frequency and intensity in many parts of the world. It is also predicted that extreme drought periods may cause extended low flow periods in many river systems throughout the world. Global warming will also change snow distribution and snowmelt patterns which will have a severe effect on reservoir operation and hydropower production.
Downscaling techniques in combination with DHI’s deterministic hydrological and river models offer a framework for quantification of the climate change impact on rivers and reservoirs. DHI’s technology applies statistical downscaling of climate projections from global and regional climate models to estimate the expected impact and associated uncertainty of climate change at local scale as basis for climate proofing and adaptation studies.
In the context of climate changes DHI’s services related to rivers and reservoirs comprise:
- Projection of future design floods
- Evaluation and climate proofing of flood protection standards
- Decision support for adaptive flood and drought risk management
- Assessment of future reservoir inflow, reservoir operation and hydropower potential
- Estimation of morphological changes and associated threats to hydraulic structures
- Flow and flood forecasting