Scholarly record

THE MANAGEMENT OF RESERVOIR SILTING IN ROMANIA

D. C. Diaconu, E. Mailat

Abstract

The reservoirs created behind dams built on the main interior rivers of Romania as well as on the Danube have increased the country’s available volume of usable water. The reservoirs’ location and the way they were managed resulted in a decrease of the retention capacity, due to large quantities of sediments accumulated in these lakes. The reservoirs on the rivers Bistriţa, Buzău, Ialomiţa, Argeş and Olt have been affected the worst by the silting process. On average, the values range from 0 - 25\% of the lakes’ usable volume, but there are cases where the degree of silting goes above 60\%, sometimes even reaching 100\%. Among the factors leading to the heavy silting of these reservoirs: their location in areas with high flows of alluvia, a pronounced erosion of the basin slopes, reduced storage coefficients, location within a cascade system and the evacuation of water at initially high levels (energetic plant operation). In this context, the constant loss of usable water volume by using it in order to supply the population, the industry, the agriculture, as well as in order to produce electricity and to attenuate flood waves, results in significant yearly losses. The total annual cost caused by reservoir silting amounts to approximately 30\% of the income they generate. All the above require measures that would restrict the process of reservoir silting. The most difficult challenge is that Romanian reservoirs vary greatly in type of accumulation, in type of exploitation, in geographical position and conditions, and therefore it is difficult to provide a single, generalised solution for the prevention of silting in all reservoirs.

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