Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Blessed with enormous water resources, Canada's water engineers have continuously developed modelling techniques to manage water effectively. Two important water management areas in Canada are hydropower generation and urban low impact development. (1) For run-of-the-river power generation stations, inlet hydraulics will affect turbine operation in terms of power generation and maintenance. For situations at which water inflow into the hydropower plant is complex, both physical and numerical models are needed to evaluate design alternatives that alleviate flow circulations that inhibit turbine operation and maintenance. The first part of the project will investigate the complex inlet hydraulic conditions of run-of-the-river hydropower plants that affect turbine operation and maintenance. Using both physical scale models and numerical simulations, appropriate modelling techniques will be developed to assist the design of inlets which reduce the impact of complex inlet hydraulics on turbine operation and maintenance. (2) Urbanization has caused serious runoff problems in terms of flooding, water quality degradation, ecological damages and receiving water erosion. Conventional runoff techniques (e.g. downstream stormwater ponds) cannot address these problems sufficiently. Urban low impact development techniques (LIDs) have been promoted in Canada to restore pre-development water balance and reduce water pollution at the source. However, the planning of LIDs remains a challenge to many Canadian municipalities due to the lack of data to identify feasible LIDs, effective evaluation performance of alternative LID plans on a watershed basis, proper cost-effectiveness analysis, and implementation of LID utilizing the public-private partnership approach. The second part of the project will focus on the development of a decision support system to facilitate LID master planning. The research findings of the proposed project will improve the design of run-of-the-river hydropower stations and facilitate the development of master LID plans in Canada as well as lead to the training of highly qualified personnel in these fields, thus bringing significant economic, environmental and social benefits to Canada.