Quantification of spatial effects of dams on watersheds using watershed topology and cloud computing platform

Keywords: dam, watershed, google earth engine, wetland
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 18

Abstract

Hydro-dams benefit us in providing water, food, and energy, but they also bring negative consequences to society and the environment. The spatial effects of dams are less studied, although the space can combine research on the negative consequences of dams from various disciplines. The main reason for being less studied in the spatial aspect is that the effects of dams need to be understood in the watershed scale, which is composited of large areas and complex topology. The requirements on the huge amounts of computing resources prevent scientists from understanding the effects of dams on the watersheds, but the recently developed cloud computing platform can help us detangle them. In this research, we quantified the spatial effects of dams on watersheds using the watershed topology and cloud computing platform (Google Earth Engine and Google Colab). Given that wetlands are hydrologically linked with dams within the watershed scale, the changes in wetlands were selected as an indicator of the effects of dams on the watershed. The results showed that the dams have spatial effects on the wetlands beyond the dam sites. Due to the development of cyber-infrastructure, the complex topological relationships between wetlands and dams, and huge amounts of satellite images were utilized for quantifying the spatial effects of dams on the watershed. This can help decision-makers establish the policy for constructing dams and compensating the local livelihoods who are affected by the dams.