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The aim of this paper is to propose a new simple and robust numerical flux of the centered type in the context of Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) finite volume schemes. The work relies on the FORCE flux of Toro and Billet and is concerned with the solution of general hyperbolic systems of nonlinear equations involving both conservative and non-conservative terms as well as sources which might become stiff. The proposed approach is formulated in a general way using a path-conservative method and the Roe-type system matrix is computed numerically in order to provide a numerical flux function that can be applied to any given hyperbolic system. Furthermore, one great advantage of the FORCE flux is that no information about the eigenstructure of the system is needed, not even eigenvalues, but only information regarding the geometry of the control volumes are required, which are automatically available in the moving mesh framework. Our method is of the finite volume type, high order accurate in space, thanks to a WENO reconstruction operator, and even in time, due to a fully-discrete ADER one-step discretization. The algorithm applies to moving multidimensional unstructured meshes composed by triangles and tetrahedra. Both accuracy and robustness of the scheme are assessed on a series of test problems for the Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics, for the magnetohydrodynamics equations as well as for the Baer–Nunziato model of compressible multi-phase flows.

A method for human safety assessment on a hydropeaked river reach is proposed and applied to an Alpine river. The human safety analysis during hydropeaking events is of particular interest because most of the Alpine watercourses are affected by hydropower plant energy production that cause rapid and frequent flow alterations (hydropeaking), but at the same time these watercourses are used by the population for recreational purposes. In literature, many studies have focused on the effect of hydropeaking on the biota but a study of the interaction between a hydropeaking wave and human safety does not yet exist. The proposed procedure is characterized by the combination of hydraulic numerical simulations to study the characteristics of the flow field with a human safety analysis and is applied to a case study in north Italy. Human safety can be assessed in two different ways: one is by studying human stability during hydropeaking events and the other is exploring the possibility of a “target person” leaving the reach during hydropeaking waves, adapting proper escape strategies. For the escape strategy Dijkstra's algorithm is used, where the distance between adjacent nodes is defined as the difficulty (penalty) of moving from one node to the other. For this reason, an original set of penalty functions is proposed that takes into account the steepness (slope between two adjacent computational cells), the roughness, and the product between the water depth and flow velocity. The results show that the difficulty in escaping increases with the flow rate. Moreover, the areas where the human safety is very low are mainly located in the central part of the watercourse. The present work proposes a possible investigational tool to evaluate and parameterize the risk for the population during hydropeaking events through quantitative indices.

The ongoing transformation of the electricity market has reshaped the hydropower production paradigm for storage reservoir systems, with a shift from strategies oriented towards maximizing regional energy production to strategies aimed at the revenue maximization of individual systems. Indeed, hydropower producers bid their energy production scheduling 1 day in advance, attempting to align the operational plan with hours where the expected electricity prices are higher. As a result, the accuracy of 1-day ahead prices forecasts has started to play a key role in the short-term optimization of storage reservoir systems. This paper aims to contribute to the topic by presenting a comparative assessment of revenues provided by short-term optimizations driven by two econometric models. Both models are autoregressive time-adapting hourly forecasting models, which exploit the information provided by past values of electricity prices, with one model, referred to as Autoarimax, additionally considering exogenous variables related to electricity demand and production. The benefit of using the innovative Autoarimax model is exemplified in two selected hydropower systems with different storage capacities. The enhanced accuracy of electricity prices forecasting is not constant across the year due to the large uncertainties characterizing the electricity market. Our results also show that the adoption of Autoarimax leads to larger revenues with respect to the use of a standard model, increases that depend strongly on the hydropower system characteristics. Our results may be beneficial for hydropower companies to enhance the expected revenues from storage hydropower systems, especially those characterized by large storage capacity.

General guidelines are available for the design of intake structures in river power plants. Nearly all existing criteria are limited in scope to a (rectangular) control section near the trash rack. In this section, a homogeneous flow with negligible wall influence is defined as the ideal condition. 3D numerics can simulate the complete velocity field up to the turbine, and therefore inform investigations of different inflow structure variations. This paper presents a review of six existing criteria and a modification of the Fisher-Franke criterion. All criteria are tested for both theoretical pipe flow conditions and artificial biased velocity distributions, for which different simplified obstacles in front of a turbine are investigated with the help of the 3D numerical software ANSYS-CFX. The best results could be achieved using the evaluation of the kinetic energy flux coefficient as well as the new modified criterion. Both can be recommended for the geometry optimisation of the intake structure.

The periodic removal of deposited sediment in Alpine artificial reservoirs can be carried out through the flushing technique, in which the bottom outlets of the dam are opened to let water flow through the gates, eroding, re-suspending and transporting the sediment downstream. However, this reservoir sediment management strategy normally generates marked variation both in the flow rate and in the Suspended Sediment Concentration (SSC) in the river reaches downstream of the dam and may produce negative effects on the riverine ecosystems and biotic communities, especially on fish. In particular, the alteration of river hydraulic parameters (i.e., water depth and flow velocity) combined with excessive turbidity values (i.e., high SSC values) may lead to a possible worsening of habitat suitability for fish, increasing animal stress. The existing known literature provides useful tools to model the effects of the varied river hydraulic characteristics and the increased fine sediment load, but separately. Due to the simultaneous increase of river flow and SSC, it would instead be advisable to combine these two parameters to obtain a comprehensive and representative fish habitat modelling during flushing events. Therefore, the present work aims to propose an innovative methodology for the European grayling (Thymallus thymallus, L. 1758) habitat modelling during sediment removal from an artificial reservoir, in order to minimize the ecological effects while optimizing reservoir sediment management. With the aim of generalizing our results, we considered two river reaches with different morphologies located in South Tyrol (NE Italy), respectively 0.8 km and 18 km downstream the Rio di Pusteria reservoir, two life stages of our model organism, grayling, a typical rheophilic freshwater fish species inhabiting the studied river, and three possible volumes of flushed sediment. Results showed that habitat suitability for spawning and juvenile grayling tended to decrease with increasing flow and SSC for each of the fish life stage considered. However, interestingly, it was preferable to increase the water outflow from the dam to reduce the flushing duration when considering high volumes of trapped sediment.

Sedimentation in reservoirs constitutes a major issue worldwide, especially when hydropower, and hence profit, is involved. In this study, the sedimentation rates, due to soil erosion and sediment yields, are analyzed in the reservoir of the Rio di Pusteria hydropower dam, in South Tyrol (Italian Alps). The focus is on a five-year period, between two consecutive sediment flushing operations occurred in June 2014 and May 2019. Based on the difference between the pre- and post-flushing bathymetries, the five-year aggregated sediment yield was determined. The soil erosion from the basin surface and the sediment budget in the reservoir are calculated by means of a gridded Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), combined with a Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) module. The topographic factor is improved by the use of a fine-scale DEM and the slope length factor is adjusted to the Alpine terrain by means of a fitting threshold. The rainfall erosivity factor is determined in two different ways, one representing the precipitation regime of the study area and one the specific rainfall conditions of the study period. The two different applications result to calculated reservoir sedimentation rates of 439,279.2 tons and 589,520.5 tons with deviations from the measured value of 3.1% and −23.2%, respectively, while the sediment delivery ratio to the reservoir was found to be 12.5%. The calculations are also compared with results of the application of the conventional six-factor USLE. The comparison between calculations and measurements shows that the methods used can be efficiently applied in an Alpine basin for the estimation of reservoir sedimentation rates.

There is a strong link between water and energy in municipal water systems then the Alliance to Save Energy coined the term “Watergy” [1] . Each component of the integrated water system contributes differently to the energy balance. With regard to urban water distribution systems (WDS), the pumping energy cost represents the single largest part of the total operational cost, also magnified by every litre of water lost to leaks. Even a small increase in operational efficiency may result in significant cost savings to the water industries. Therefore the inefficient management of water distribution systems results not only into depletion of water resources but also into energy consumption that increase CO 2 emissions related also to the treatment of water volumes greater than needed, with use of excessive chemical components and consequent higher environmental global impact. The research outlined in this contribution was born with the aim to develop appropriate methodologies and tools to support the optimization of the WDS performance, in terms of water saving and reduction of energy consumptions and consequently environmental impacts. The integration of advanced WDS hydraulic modelling with a material and energy flow analysis is proposed herein, where the output of the hydraulic simulations permits to get more accurate input for a metabolic analysis of the system. Next phases of this research will test the integrated model under different scenarios, aimed at quantifying the environmental impact of different WDS management solutions by means of selected indicators.

Renewable and smart energy systems require district heating and cooling grids able to operate with variable flow rates, to manage different supply temperatures, and to support distributed energy production involving bidirectional flows. Due to these requirements, accurate and effective thermo-hydraulic models are essential to correctly simulate the flow rates, the head drops and the temperature transients for supporting the design, management and optimisation of thermal distribution networks. In this article, an efficient numerical scheme for the simulation of thermal grids based on a thermo-hydraulic model with a quasi-dynamic approach is proposed. Global gradient algorithm of Todini together with a uniformly distributed representation of demand along the pipes is used for steady-state hydraulic simulations of the networks modelled according to the graph theory. The temperature distribution is computed by solving a first order hyperbolic PDE which accounts for heat advection in the flux term and heat dissipation in an algebraic source term. A very efficient second-order Eulerian-Lagrangian finite volume scheme is employed on a staggered mesh, which evolves in time the temperature distribution starting from the velocity distribution given by the hydraulic solver. The usage of a Eulerian-Lagrangian algorithm for the discretisation of the convective terms, allows the proposed model to be unconditionally stable for every time step size. As such, the main advantages of the proposed model are the flexibility due to the admissibility of any spatial-temporal discretisation, the second order accuracy provided by both the demand schematisation and the thermo-hydraulic solver, and the computational efficiency guaranteed by the decoupled modelling approach. The resulting algorithm is extensively validated on four tests consisting of thermal grids of various complexity that have been carefully designed in order to capture different features and behaviours of the model. The accuracy of the results in terms of velocity, pressure and temperature is tested by separately checking the symmetry, the advection term, the heat loss component and, finally, by simulating a complex grid configuration with multiple heat sources. The article aims to present a proof-of-concept concerning a breakthrough numerical scheme for the efficient thermo-hydraulic simulation of pipeline networks, which proves to be suitably implemented in the modelling of district heating and cooling networks.

Sustainable urban energy planning depends on how renewable and local sources are integrated, how smart systems are implemented, and how synergies between regional and national policies are maximized. This study presents a methodology for the design of 100% renewable energy systems aiming to optimize the use of biomass and energy exchange with the national system while ensuring electricity import and export balance. The proposed procedure combines the robustness of the EnergyPLAN hourly energy system simulation model with the flexibility of multiple-criteria decision analysis. The result is a suitable methodology able to identify the best energy scenario based on a deep multi-parameter analysis from a technical point of view. A test case is proposed aiming at achieving 100% renewable energy for the Alpine city of Bozen-Bolzano in 2050.

In this paper we present a probabilistic/deterministic model for the evaluation of the sediment transport rate in a stream. Starting from Einstein’s theory, the approach was obtained by trying to overcome some of the intrinsic limitations. The approach is based on two distinct probability functions, one relevant to the detachment of grains and the second relevant to the length of particle jumps. The sediment transport rate is obtained by integrating the distribution of the ranges of the particle jumps multiplied by the average particle velocity. The relationship for the average ranges of particle jumps is an opportune combination of the Einstein and Yalin expressions. The final formulation was calibrated by means of a large number of experimental data and also by comparison with some of the most widely-used empirical formulas. The results show a better agreement between theory and experiments than do the other theories analyzed.

The benthic sediment fingerprint is analysed in the small peri-alpine lake Levico (Trentino, Italy) to identify the causes of recurrent phenomena of turbidity peaks, particularly evident in a littoral region of the water body. In order to study the sediment transport processes, we exploit the fact that the sediment supply from the major tributary has a specific chemical composition, which differs from that of the nearby lake basin. Three elements (Fe, Al, K) have been used as tracers to identify the source and the deposition patterns of tributary sediments, and another typical element, Si, has been critically analysed because of its dual (allochthonous and autochthonous) origin. Several samples of the benthic material have been analysed using SEM–EDS, and the results of the sedimentological characterisation have been compared with the patterns of sediment accumulation at the bed of the lake obtained using a three-dimensional numerical model, in response to the tributary supply under different external forcing and stratification conditions. The coupled use of field measurements and numerical results suggests that the turbidity phenomena are strongly related to the deposition of the sediments supplied by the tributary stream, and shows that it is possible to reconstruct the process of local transport when the tributary inflow is chemically specific.

Summary Riparian vegetation plays a crucial role on affecting the floodplain hydraulic roughness, which in turn significantly influences the dynamics of flood waves. This paper explores the potential accuracies of retrieving vegetation hydrodynamic parameters through satellite multispectral data. The method is focused on estimation of vegetation height ( h g ) and flexural rigidity ( MEI ) for herbaceous patterns and of plant density ( M ), tree height ( h ), stem diameter ( Ds ), crown base height ( cbh ) and crown diameter ( Dc ) of high-forest ( hf ) and coppice ( cop ) consociations for arboreal and shrub patterns. The method is organized in four sequential steps: (1) classification procedure of riparian corridor; (2) land cover-based Principal Component Analysis of spectral channels; (3) explorative analysis of correlation structure between principal components and biomechanical properties and (4) model identification/estimation/validation for floodplain roughness parameterization. To capture the hydrodynamic impacts of stiff/flexible vegetation, a GIS hydrodynamic model has been coupled with a flow resistance external routine that estimates the hydraulic roughness by using simulated water stages and the remote sensing-derived hydrodynamic parameters. The procedure is tested along a 3-km reach of the Avisio river (Trentino Alto Adige, Italy) by comparing extended field surveys and a synchronous SPOT-5 multispectral image acquired on 28/08/2004. Results showed significant correlation values between spectral-derived information and hydrodynamic parameters. Predictive models provided high coefficients of determination, especially for mixed arboreal and shrub land covers. The generated structural parameter maps represent spatially explicit data layers that can be used as inputs to hydrodynamic models to analyze flow resistance effects in different submergence conditions of vegetation. The hydraulic modelling results showed that the new method is able to provide accurate hydraulic output data and to enhance the roughness estimation up to 73% with respect to a traditional look-up table approach, with higher improvements for low flow conditions and over shrub covers.

The paper faces the problem of the resistance due to vegetation in a river characterized by fully submerged vegetation formed by concentrated colonies of bushes. The flow presents strong spatial variations between plants that make unreliable the traditional approach based on time averaging of turbulent fluctuations. A more useful model, based on time and spatial averaging is proposed. In the paper the necessary closure hypotheses are also discussed. The vertical distribution of mean velocity and turbulence stress have been measured with laser Doppler anemometry techniques, by means of spatial and time-averaging rules. Based on the double-averaged velocity and Reynolds stress profiles, an analytical two-layer model is proposed, in order to describe uniform flow conditions in the whole flow depth. Theoretical results are compared with the results of a series of experimental tests carried out in a laboratory flume.