Automatic Detection of Potential Dam Locations in Digital Terrain Models

Dam Siting: A Review

Dams can effectively regulate the spatial and temporal distribution of water resources, where the rationality of dam siting determines whether the role of dams can be effectively performed. This paper reviews the research literature on dam siting in the past 20 years, discusses the methods used for dam siting, focuses on the factors influencing dam siting, and assesses the impact of different dam functions on siting factors. The results show the following: (1) Existing siting methods can be categorized into three types—namely, GIS/RS-based siting, MCDM- and MCDM-GIS-based siting, and machine learning-based siting. GIS/RS emphasizes the ability to capture and analyze data, MCDM has the advantage of weighing the importance of the relationship between multiple factors, and machine learning methods have a strong ability to learn and process complex data. (2) Site selection factors vary greatly, depending on the function of the dam. For dams with irrigation and water supply as the main purpose, the site selection is more focused on the evaluation of water quality. For dams with power generation as the main purpose, the hydrological factors characterizing the power generation potential are the most important. For dams with flood control as the main purpose, the topography and geological conditions are more important. (3) The integration of different siting methods and the siting of new functional dams in the existing research is not sufficient. Future research should focus on the integration of different methods and disciplines, in order to explore the siting of new types of dams.

Automated Location Detection of Retention and Detention Basins for Water Management

Retention and detention basins are engineering constructions with multiple objectives; e.g., flood protection and irrigation. Their performance is highly location-dependent, and thus, optimization strategies are needed. LOCASIN (Location detection of retention and detention basins) is an open-source MATLAB tool that enables automated and rapid detection, characterization and evaluation of basin locations. The site detection is based on a numerical raster analysis to determine the optimal dam axis orientation, the dam geometry and the basin area and volume. After selecting a reasonable basin combination, the results are summarized and visualized. LOCASIN represents a user-friendly and flexible tool for policy makers, engineers and scientists to determine dam and basin properties of optimized positions for planning and research purposes. It can be applied in an automated way to solve small and large scale engineering problems. The software is available on GitHub.