Author(s): B. A. Kwon; D. S. Rhee; H. Woo
Linked Author(s): Dong Sop Rhee
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Small dams are usually made to maintain river stage or to irrigate water in river reach. Currently, about 18,000 small dams are used as intakes or water supply facilities in Korea. Construction of small dams caused environmental problems such as blockage of eco-corridor, degradation of water quality and aesthetic value of river, and damage to riverine and aquatic habitat. Every year, about 150 small dams were abandoned because of urbanization, change of farming system and land use, deterioration of the structure, integration of intake facilities. Since these abandoned small dams are remained in river and hardly going to be removed, they will cause environmental problems continuouslyIn this study, the bed elevation changes after small dam removal was analyzed based on the demonstration project for a typical Korean small dam named “Gokreung2 Bo” located in Gokreung-cheon River, to find out the effects of the small dam removal in the aspect of the geomorphologic change near the demonstration site. For the comparative analysis, the cross-sections were measured several times before and after dam removal. Especially, because it was expected that the bed elevation would be changed dramatically after flood seasons, the cross-section measurements were done for two years, i.e., for two flood seasons. Also, conventional numerical model like HEC-6 is used to simulate the bed elevation changes of up-and down streams as a result of eliminating a disused small dam for short-term and long-term estimation. The short-term estimation results were compared with the measurement results of the cross-sections, and the long-term estimation results were used to find when the bed of Gokreung-cheon River would reach the equilibrium state after dam removal.
Year: 2009