Reservoirs and Planning

Unit-V
 Reservoir
• When a barrier is constructed across a river in the
form of a dam water gets stored on the upstream
side of the barrier – forming a pool of water called as
dam reservoir or an impounding reservoir or a river
reservoir
• Quality of water stored in reservoir is as same as that
of the natural lake
• Water stored in rainy season – used throughout the
year till the next rainy season arrives to refill the
emptying reservoir again
 Broad classification of reservoir
• Storage or conservation reservoir
• Flood control reservoirs
• Multipurpose reservoirs
• Distribution reservoir
 Storage or conservation reservoir
• When water supply is drawn directly from any river
or stream for different purposes like
– City water supply
– Irrigation supply
– Hydroelectric power generation purpose
It may fail to supply or satisfy the consumer demands
during extremely low flows
And it may become difficult to carry out their operations
due to devastating floods
A storage or conservation reservoir can retain such excess
supplies during periods of peak flows and can release them
gradually during low flows as and when the need arises
 Flood control reservoir
• A flood control reservoir also called as flood –
mitigation reservoir stores a portion of the
flood flows in such a way so as to minimize the
flood peaks at the areas to be protected
downstream
Types of flood control reservoir
• Storage reservoirs or detention basins
• Retarding reservoirs or retarding basins
• Storage reservoir
Gates and valves installed at its spillway and at its
sluice outlet
• Retarding reservoir
Uncontrolled and ungated outlets
 Functioning of retarding reservoir
• Uncontrolled spillway and orifice sluice ways
• Automatic regulation of outflow depending upon
the availability of water
• Maximum discharging capacity of the reservoir
should be equal to the maximum safe carrying
capacity of the channel downstream
• During floods the reservoir gets filled and
discharges through sluiceways- as the reservoir
elevation increases the outflow discharge increases
 Advantages of the retarding reservoir
• Cost of the gate installation is saved
• No gates – possibility of human error and
negligence in their operation is eliminated
• The land adjacent to the reservoir – below the
maximum reservoir level will be submerged
temporarily and occasionally – and can be
successfully used for agriculture – since no
permanent habitation can be allowed on this
land
 Functioning of storage reservoir
• With gated spillway and sluiceways
• Provides more flexibility of operation, better
control
• Preferred on large rivers
• Flood crest downstream can be better controlled
and regulated so as not to cause their coincidence
Major disadvantage is the initial cost and the risk of
human error in installation and operation of gates
• Multipurpose reservoirs
• Reservoirs designed to protect the downstream areas from
floods and at the same time it befits in conserving water for
supply to irrigation, industrial needs hydroelectric power
generation purposes
• Distribution reservoirs
• A small storage reservoir constructed within a city water
supply system
• These reservoirs can be filled by pumping water at certain
rate and can be used to supply water at higher rates than
the inflow rate – during critical periods of demand
– Permits the water pumps to work at uniform rate
– Stores water during hours of no demand and supply water from
storage during critical periods
 Reservoir site
• Regardless of the size of reservoir – the main function of any
reservoir is to
– Store water and to
– Stabilize the flow of water
• Therefore the most important physical capacity of any reservoir
is its storage capacity
• The capacity of reservoir on dam sites is determined from the
contour maps of the area
– A topographic survey of dam site is carried out
– A contour map is drawn
– Area enclosed within each contour can be measured with planimeter