Re-operationalization of dams to adapt to climate change in Romania

Increased hydrologic variability has and will continue have a profound impact on the water sector through the water availability versus water demand and water allocation at the global, regional, basin, and local levels. The recent increases in the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts in Romania, combined with the reduced drought and flood storage buffering capacity of dams under a changing climate may have critical implications for the region’s water supply and economy. Increasing the size and number of dams in addition to “dam reoperation” (i.e., modifying dam operations) may be necessary to offset the climate change impacts on flooding and drought vulnerability. The present paper deals with several examples of required changes in Romanian dam operation: the new constrains in operation of hydropower developments, the needed increase of attenuation volume for existing reservoir by lowering the reservoir level, the new concept in characterizing the flood by its volume instead of the peak inflow and the reasonable procedures to coope with the large siltation of some existing reservoirs.