Author: Camilo E. Garzon

Publisher:

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

This paper identifies and describes the studies necessary to predict water quality changes, at an early state of planning, in large tropical reservoirs with long retention times. Emphasis is placed on both the reservoir area and the region downstream. The need for defining the "baseline" environment is presented as a requirement for conducting studies associated with the flooding and operating stages. These studies are classified according to the stage of project development. In the reservoir area, aspects such as biomass quantification, reservoir thermal stratification, water circulation, dissolved oxygen consumption and reservoir recovery are of major importance. The paper illustrates that biological degradation in tropical reservoirs follows a significantly different path from that in reservoirs in temperate zones, thus, conventional approaches to reservoir clearing and filling may not be adequate for projects in forested tropical regions. Two approaches - for project feasibility and project design - are suggested in order to meet the need for successive refinement in the results, and to take advantage of the increasing availability of project and environmental information.