1.2 - INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Programme

56 3.1 ALPRESERV
environment and cultural heritage
Lead partner
Universität der
Bundeswehr München
Other partners
Land Steiermark
Provincia A. di Bolzano
St MUGV
TU Graz
ÖVÖU
Verbund - AHP AG
CESI Ricerca S.p.A
Provincia di Belluno
Univ. di Trieste
SJE GmbH
Univ. v Ljubljani
EPFL
FMG SA
SFH - Canton du Valais
SWV
Project website
www.alpreserv.org
Contact person
Sven Hartmann
Tel +49 (0)89 6004 2618
Fax +49 (0)89 6004 3858
sven.hartmann@unibw-muenchen.de
alpreserv@gmx.de
Duration
01.2003 – 12.2006
Total budget in EUR
3.050.350
ERDF in EUR
1.282.675
Lead partner
Project partner
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SI
CH
CH
CH
CH
Sustainable Sediment Management of Alpine Reservoirs considering
ecological and economical aspects
Sediment management strategies to safeguard storage capacity for flood protection,
water conservation or hydro power use.
Aim
Management of water as an extremely valuable resource is
guaranteed by numerous reservoirs in the Alpine environment.
Sediments are transported in rivers originated from
natural geomorphologic processes accumulating material in
reservoirs. Thus, storage capacity is reduced interfering with
the needs of water supply, flood protection and hydro power.
However, the lack of sediments in downstream sections heavily
affects ecological variety, river bed stability and groundwater.
The project aims on a wise management of sediments
on basis of experiences gained on national level to establish
transnational guidelines taking into account the EU Water
Framework Directive and spatial development needs to preserve
existing reservoirs and to avoid uncontrolled exploitation
by constructing new storage capacity.
Activities
The loss of reservoir capacity must be faced either by building
new ones in the fragile environment of the Alps or by enhancing
dams and dikes along rivers and cities occupying valuable
land. To maintain storage volume measures to reduce sedimentation
should be initiated. If sedimentation has already
occurred or may not be prevented methods of excavation
must be taken in consideration such as flushing or mechanical
removal. These are very expensive tasks and may affect
sensitive alpine environment seriously. However, failing to do
so, results in the loss of storage capacity and consequentially
the loss of flood protection abilities, water supply reliability
and hydro power generation potential. As flood protection is a
major task and of high public interest transnational strategies
are needed to implement a sustainable management aiming
on a dynamic balance to avoid reservoir sedimentation as well
as degradation processes of rivers in the peri-alpine belt to
reduce the risk of floods and to avoid severe damages to infrastructure
and private property.
Outcomes and results
In Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland intensive work
has been performed to prevent or remediate reservoir sedimentation.
The different experiences will be coordinated for
the Alpine Space resulting in a comprehensive guideline on
sedimentation processes for enhanced training of water authorities,
local administrations and private businesses. Accompanying
information is necessary to make public aware of
the necessity of sustainable sediment management as part of
flood prevention. Seven typical Alpine reservoirs were selected
for pilot projects ranging from a high region facility directly
influenced by glacier activity down to peri-alpine belt river reservoirs
to cover most sedimentation problems in the Alpine
region. The activities are focussed on different strategies to
transfer or remove sediments in a larger scale taking into consideration
the fragile environment of the Alps. New and innovative
approaches (e.g. density currents) will be tested under
natural conditions based on slight constructional modifications
(e.g. training walls, air bubble sprayers). The measures are
accompanied by extended measurements of biotic and nonbiotic
parameters using experiences from the different nations
and affected authorities. Information of sediment removal efforts
throughout the Alps especially in Italy will add valuable
data. Intensive cross-border knowledge transfer ensures reliable
results and comparability of the effectiveness. A data
base will be implemented to gather information about reservoirs
of different geometry and operational procedures. Based
on the strong collaboration within the partner network data
collection can be extended to monitoring stations, too. Operational
numerical models already in use will provide partners
with simulation results of the pilot projects. Monitoring stations
enable validation of the effectiveness and sustainability of the
measures. Ecological observations (e.g. fish habitats) provide
information about environmental impacts.