Introducing the Circularity Index for Dams/Reservoirs (CIDR)

Abstract

The world currently faces significant hydrologic changes associated with global climate change, such as changes in precipitation patterns, rising surface temperature, and increases in the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, which will affect the design capacity and operating characteristics of dams/reservoirs. This brings new challenges to current water management strategies. This research is aimed to create, apply, and provide a novel indicator named Circularity Index for Dams/Reservoirs (CIDR) that allows the determination of the water circularity level on the dual dam/reservoir system; that is to evaluate the water efficiency levels and the circular water flows for the processes at a site. This new method has hydrological, economic, and environmental variables as well as social ones. This indicator is defined as the sum of the scores of the eleven indicators comprising the model multiplied by the weight. The method has been implemented giving the same weight for each indicator. It has been successfully applied in the 18 dam/reservoir systems managed by the Duero River Basin, located in the region of “Castilla y León” (Spain). The CIDR provides maximum information in a single indicator value ranging from 0 to 55. A higher value of CIDR indicates a better practice of water circularity management. The results probe the increased utility of the index and suggest that six dams/reservoirs present high circularity of water flow.