Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

The importance of environmental water has been risen in terms of river ecosystem soundness with preventing stream flow depletion in rural area, while enlarging agricultural reservoir project is conducted under the 4 main river restoration project for supplying more water to 4 main rivers. The aim of this study was to estimate the amount of environmental water release and analyze the release pattern during non-irrigation season in enlarged agricultural reservoirs. The 4 reservoirs (Dansan, Samga, Geumbong, Changpyeong) located on the upper region of Nakdong river were simulated applying the operation rule which was determined by release criteria curves. The simulated results indicated that the more environmental water could be released than the spillway release and continuous release was achieved with smaller range of fluctuation. In case of Changpyeong reservoir, average 506.0 thousand m3 environmental water could be released on Feb., and it was about twice as much as the spillway release before the enlargement, and also, the 18 thousand m3/day environmental water could be supplied to a stream consistently after enlargement. From the results, it was expected that the additional environmental water release will improve stream water flow during dry season in terms of quantity and quality of water.