Climate change impact on Tala Hydropower Plant in Wangchu Basin, Bhutan | |
| Author | Kuenzang |
| Call Number | AIT RSPR no.WM-12-01 |
| Subject(s) | Climatic changes--Bhutan--Wangchu Basin Hydroelectric power plants--Bhutan--Wangchu Basin Tala Hydropower Plant (Bhutan) |
| Note | Requirments for the degree of Master of Engineering in Water Engineering and Management, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Research studies project report ; no. WM-12-01 |
| Abstract | Herat province in Afghanistan has faced successive drought events more frequently and more severely during the last decade. Drought problems have significantly affected economy and human lives in this area. In order to analyze drought intensity during past decade, among many drought indexes, the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) was chosen because of its widespread application and simplicity for describing and comparing drought conditions among different time periods and regions with different climatic conditions. Furthermore, the trends in wheat production, area, and yield were analyzed, and the results show that increase in wheat production is mainly due to increase in wheat yield rather than cultivated area. In order to further investigate the impact of drought on wheat yield, the SPI-Yield relationship was analyzed for different periods of SPI such as SPI3, SPI5, SPI6, and SPI12 the results show that SPI5 which also covers the wheat growing period reflects the best variation on wheat yield. The SPI5-yield relationship analysis shows that about 75% of variation of wheat yield is depended upon the SPI5, so it signifies that wheat production is mainly function of rainfall over production months in the Herat province. In order to calculate monthly and yearly CWR and IWR, CROPWAT model was used and April found to be the most critical month in term of wheat water requirement. The growing period of wheat is from 5thNovember till 30th of May, and total wheat water requirement in this period found by CROPWAT model is 451.7mm which is very closed to amount of rainfall (511.5mm) found by SPI5-rainfall relationship analysis. In addition, this report attempts to quantify the economic losses which are caused by losses in the wheat yield and production. The economic losses are seen as the difference between yield obtained by farmer’s best year and actual yield in the field. The analysis show that resulted economic loss is 1.1 US $ billion for all 10 years started from 2000 till 2009. In addition, relationships between IWR-yield and IWR-production income were also calculated, and the results show that 1mm increase in IWR (rainfall water deficit) results in a 0.011ton/ha reduction of wheat yield and 1.5dollar in production income. |
| Year | 2012 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Research studies project report ; no. WM-12-01 |
| Type | Research Study Project Report (RSPR) |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Water Engineering and Management (WM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Perret, Sylvain; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Babel, Mukand S.;Shrestha, Sangam; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway; |
| Degree | Research Studies Project Report (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2009 |