Civil Engineering Guidelines for Planning and Designing Hydroelectric
Developments: ASCE Small Scale Hydro A
merican Society of Civil Engineers, USA

This guide describes the hydrologic analysis based on WATSTORE - the U.S.G.S.'s National Water Data Storage and Retrieval system. WATSTORE contains the entire historical record of all active and retired gauging stations in the U.S., together with computer programs and routines which can produce, inter alia, flow duration curves for any part, or all of the record.

If no record exists near to a proposed site, a streamflow record from a nearby gauge may be adjusted by reference to catchment area, topography, soils and precipitation pattern. The method lays emphasis on the need for tail-water rating curves for projects at in-stream dams.

The flow-duration curve method described for the calculation of power and energy is more sophisticated than previous citations and includes consideration of residual flow and minimum turbine flows but still uses average efficiencies for turbine, generator, transformer, etc. over the whole flow range. The Guide's Chapter 8 (Environmental Mitigation and Facility Design) is a valuable introduction to those writing EIAs.

<<<Back..