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University of Montana

Hydropower

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Temporal And Spatial Connectivity And The Impacts Of Hydropower In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, Serena Lynn Butler Jan 2024

Temporal And Spatial Connectivity And The Impacts Of Hydropower In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, Serena Lynn Butler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tropical regions hold untapped hydropower potential, but dam construction often adversely impacts multiple dimensions of connectivity in river systems, rigorous evaluation of which is often lacking. This study investigates temporal and spatial dimensions of longitudinal and lateral connectivity in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, a region with ongoing and planned hydropower projects. Limited in-situ monitoring data is a common challenge in tropical rivers. To address this, we utilized satellite imagery from Landsat (via Google Earth Engine) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) data. We examined alterations in the flow regime over time and relative to dam construction. We also …


Sediment Dynamics In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia: Implications For Understanding Tropical River Processes And Hydropower Development, Luke H. Fisher Jan 2020

Sediment Dynamics In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia: Implications For Understanding Tropical River Processes And Hydropower Development, Luke H. Fisher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Magdalena River Basin of Colombia has a globally relevant sediment flux, however, studies of the sediment regime in the basin are limited in scope. This knowledge gap limits application of understanding of sediment dynamics to hydropower decision making. To close this gap, we implemented a sediment budget framework to quantify the impacts of hydropower development in a 118,000 km2 portion of the Magdalena River basin. We informed this framework with analysis of background erosion rates derived from 10Be cosmogenic nuclides and modern sediment fluxes derived from monitoring and optical remote sensing. We standardized these data to spatially …