Digital twins of regulated river stretches coupling hydraulic modelling with individual-based models for fish populations to perform environmental flow assessment

This project aims to develop tools that can promote sustainable management of regulated rivers to make the hydropower industry more biodiversity-friendly, without adverse impacts on production or regulatory capacity.

In Sweden, about 40-50% of electricity production comes from hydropower. Moreover, we are among the first nations to declare that we will be fossil-free by the year 2030 in order to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change, so hydropower is expected to remain in high demand.

To meet international and national agreements on biodiversity conservation, the environmental impacts of hydropower production need to be mitigated. Therefore, there is a great need for new river management tools that can help to predict the effects of hydropeaking operating scenarios on fish populations to protect and restore freshwater biodiversity, while continuing to provide clean energy. Such management tools hold great promise for balancing society’s river regulation needs by restoring environmental flow regimes to improve connectivity and stream habitat.

Digital twins of rivers can be such an advanced hydraulic and ecological modelling tool that can provide powerful means for evaluating impacts of various river management scenarios such as river flow regimes and habitat restoration on fish populations. These digital twins can provide valuable information to hydropower companies and managing authorities before a new flow regime or restoration scenario is implemented.