An assessment of the possibility of improving the ecological patency of the Bystrzyca river below Mietków in terms of increasing the capacity of the channel

• Main Authors: Grzywna Henryk, Stodolak Radosław
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2018-01-01
• Series: E3S Web of Conferences
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184400049

The work contains an assessment of the possibility of improving the ecological patency of the river in terms of increasing the capacity of the channel. It is based on the analysis of the correction of the riverbed capacity by improving and optimizing the damming structure operation. The damming structures located in the riverbed have a negative impact on the aquatic environment and they have crossed the ecological corridors which are natural migration routes for fish. For the purpose of improving the ecological patency, a one-dimensional hydraulic model was built in the HEC-RAS program. Using stationary flow module, water table in each of the tested cross-sections was calculated. The model was used to build a module for optimizing gates of damming structure. Following the results, such a system variant of damming structure operation was proposed on the Bystrzyca river section to obtain the highest possible patency of the section and provide optimal conditions for fish migration. The study shows the relation between the hydraulic capacity of the watercourse and the ecological patency. It is also shown that these parameters depend on each other and an increase in the hydraulic capacity improves the ecological patency of the rivers. 1 Introduction The capacity of a stream is understood as such a state that allows free flow of water, ice and other materials carried by a river [1-3]. Streams are ecological corridors and are one of the most important places for living and reproduction of organisms. Damming structures adversely affect the patency of watercourses and they are also barriers disrupting migration and ecological corridors. These kinds of objects cause both an interruption of the ecosystem continuum and also change in physical, chemical and biological conditions of the watercourse. Due to the increase of accumulation and erosion of the material in the river channel, they also change the hydrological regime [4]. * Corresponding author: [e-mail]