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In February 2017, a failure occurring in Oroville Dam’s main spillway risked causing severe damages downstream. A unique aspect of this incident was the fact that it happened during a flood scenario well within its design and operational procedures, prompting research into its causes and determining methods to prevent similar events from reoccurring. In this study, a hydroclimatic analysis of Oroville Dam’s catchment is conducted, along with a review of related design and operational manuals. The data available allows for the comparison of older flood-frequency analyses to new alternative methods proposed in this paper and relevant literature. Based on summary characteristics of the 2017 floods, possible causes of the incident are outlined, in order to understand which factors contributed more significantly. It turns out that the event was most likely the result of a structural problem in the dam’s main spillway and detrimental geological conditions, but analysis of surface level data also reveals operational issues that were not present during previous larger floods, promoting a discussion about flood control design methods, specifications, and dam inspection procedures, and how these can be improved to prevent a similar event from occurring in the future.
Aristotelis Koskinas; Aristoteles Tegos; Penelope Tsira; Panayiotis Dimitriadis; Theano Iliopoulou; Panos Papanicolaou; Demetris Koutsoyiannis; Tracey Williamson. Insights into the Oroville Dam 2017 Spillway Incident. Geosciences 2019, 9, 37 .
AMA StyleAristotelis Koskinas, Aristoteles Tegos, Penelope Tsira, Panayiotis Dimitriadis, Theano Iliopoulou, Panos Papanicolaou, Demetris Koutsoyiannis, Tracey Williamson. Insights into the Oroville Dam 2017 Spillway Incident. Geosciences. 2019; 9 (1):37.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAristotelis Koskinas; Aristoteles Tegos; Penelope Tsira; Panayiotis Dimitriadis; Theano Iliopoulou; Panos Papanicolaou; Demetris Koutsoyiannis; Tracey Williamson. 2019. "Insights into the Oroville Dam 2017 Spillway Incident." Geosciences 9, no. 1: 37.
Over the last decade, Environmental Flow Assessment (EFA) has focused scientific attention around heavily-modified hydrosystems, such as flow regulated releases downstream of dams. In this light, numerous approaches of varying complexity have been developed, the most holistic of which incorporate hydrological, hydraulic, biological and water quality inputs, as well as socioeconomic issues. Finding the optimal flow releases, informing policy and determining an operational framework are often the main focus. This work exhibits a simplification of the DRIFT framework, and is regarded as the first holistic EFA approach, consisting of three modules, namely hydrological, hydraulic and fish quality. A novel conceptual classification for fish quality is proposed, associating fish fauna requirements with hydraulic characteristics, exported by fish survey analyses. The new methodology was applied and validated successfully at three stream sites in Lesotho, where DRIFT was formerly employed.
Aristoteles Tegos; Wolfram Schlüter; Niall Gibbons; Yanis Katselis; Andreas Efstratiadis. Assessment of Environmental Flows from Complexity to Parsimony—Lessons from Lesotho. Water 2018, 10, 1293 .
AMA StyleAristoteles Tegos, Wolfram Schlüter, Niall Gibbons, Yanis Katselis, Andreas Efstratiadis. Assessment of Environmental Flows from Complexity to Parsimony—Lessons from Lesotho. Water. 2018; 10 (10):1293.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAristoteles Tegos; Wolfram Schlüter; Niall Gibbons; Yanis Katselis; Andreas Efstratiadis. 2018. "Assessment of Environmental Flows from Complexity to Parsimony—Lessons from Lesotho." Water 10, no. 10: 1293.
Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is key input in water resources, agricultural and environmental modelling. For many decades, numerous approaches have been proposed for the consistent estimation of PET at several time scales of interest. The most recognized is the Penman-Monteith formula, which is yet difficult to apply in data-scarce areas, since it requires simultaneous observations of four meteorological variables (temperature, sunshine duration, humidity, wind velocity). For this reason, parsimonious models with minimum input data requirements are strongly preferred. Typically, these have been developed and tested for specific hydroclimatic conditions, but when they are applied in different regimes they provide much less reliable (and in some cases misleading) estimates. Therefore, it is essential to develop generic methods that remain parsimonious, in terms of input data and parameterization, yet they also allow for some kind of local adjustment of their parameters, through calibration. In this study we present a recent parametric formula, based on a simplified formulation of the original Penman-Monteith expression, which only requires mean daily or monthly temperature data. The method is evaluated using meteorological records from different areas worldwide, at both the daily and monthly time scales. The outcomes of this extended analysis are very encouraging, as indicated by the substantially high validation scores of the proposed approach across all examined data sets. In general, the parametric model outperforms well-established methods of the everyday practice, since it ensures optimal approximation ofpotential evapotranspiration.
Aristoteles Tegos; Andreas Efstratiadis; Nikolaos Malamos; Nikolaos Mamassis; Demetris Koutsoyiannis. Evaluation of a Parametric Approach for Estimating Potential Evapotranspiration Across Different Climates. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 2015, 4, 2 -9.
AMA StyleAristoteles Tegos, Andreas Efstratiadis, Nikolaos Malamos, Nikolaos Mamassis, Demetris Koutsoyiannis. Evaluation of a Parametric Approach for Estimating Potential Evapotranspiration Across Different Climates. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia. 2015; 4 ():2-9.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAristoteles Tegos; Andreas Efstratiadis; Nikolaos Malamos; Nikolaos Mamassis; Demetris Koutsoyiannis. 2015. "Evaluation of a Parametric Approach for Estimating Potential Evapotranspiration Across Different Climates." Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 4, no. : 2-9.
Aristoteles Tegos; Andreas Efstratiadis; Demetris Koutsoyiannis. A Parametric Model for Potential Evapotranspiration Estimation Based on a Simplified Formulation of the Penman- Monteith Equation. Evapotranspiration - An Overview 2013, 1 .
AMA StyleAristoteles Tegos, Andreas Efstratiadis, Demetris Koutsoyiannis. A Parametric Model for Potential Evapotranspiration Estimation Based on a Simplified Formulation of the Penman- Monteith Equation. Evapotranspiration - An Overview. 2013; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAristoteles Tegos; Andreas Efstratiadis; Demetris Koutsoyiannis. 2013. "A Parametric Model for Potential Evapotranspiration Estimation Based on a Simplified Formulation of the Penman- Monteith Equation." Evapotranspiration - An Overview , no. : 1.