This study models the effect of climate change and increased irrigation withdrawals on the available water for hydropower production in two semi-arid river basins – Kizilirmak (Turkey) and Devoll (Albania) – and the role of the reservoirs.
According to the simulations, the combined effect of climate change and extended irrigation withdrawals will overall lead to reduced runoff in the rivers. The changes will be most dramatic at Kizilirmak, reducing the water available for hydropower production. The presence of the reservoirs will lead to extended water use/losses due to the provision of regulated flow, enabling larger irrigation withdrawals and increasing the evaporative losses from the reservoir surfaces.
Comparing the water consumption losses at Kizilirmak, the irrigation losses are in the range of 2–4 times larger than the gross evaporation losses from reservoir surfaces. The reservoirs at Devoll will improve water availability for hydropower production during low flow periods, and the upstream irrigation presently represents a low risk to the downstream power producers.
As the results are sensitive to specific river basin characteristics and the assumptions made, the results cannot be generalized to other river basins without taking these specifics into consideration.
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