This open access book presents (selected) new and innovative developments for sustainable and fish-friendly hydropower. It offers unique insights into the challenges, practices and policies of hydropower developments across 8 European countries, providing examples from on-site studies and European-wide analyses. The case studies throughout the book are practical “real-world” examples, which are intended to serve as inspiration for anyone who would like to know more about how solutions for more sustainable hydropower production can be designed and implemented.
Hydropower is an important renewable energy source, which, however, can also impact aquatic ecosystems, fish populations and hydro-morphology. EU and national water, environmental and energy legislation strive for sustainable energy and water resource management as well as the protection of important habitats and species. These have an effect on the requirements and decision making processes for hydropower planning, commissioning and operation. With a high variety of measures existing and site-specific conditions as well as national and EU level legal requirements to consider, it can be difficult to determine, what issues to address and which measures to implement.
Peter Rutschmann worked almost 15 years as full professor for Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering at Technical University of Munich. He retired in October 2021. He has 40 years of experience in hydraulic engineering and was involved in more than 50 hydropower projects. He is an expert in physical, numerical and ethohydraulic modelling.
Eleftheria Kampa is a senior fellow on water resources management at Ecologic Institute, focusing on comparative policy assessments across sectors and countries, the interface of science-policy and stakeholder participation.
Christian Wolter is fisheries engineer by training and now working as fish ecologist and senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) for 30 years.
Ismail Albayrak is a civil engineer and work as senior scientist and lecturer at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology(VAW) of ETH Zurich. His main research foci are on the development of innovative solutions for safe downstream fish passage at hydropower plants and water intakes, reservoir sedimentation and its mitigation measures, sediment transport and turbulent open-channel flows.
Laurent David is a full professor at the head of the department fluid, thermal and combustion of the institute Pprime. He is involved in several National and European programs of research and develops his research in fluid mechanics and ecohydraulics since 25 years with experimental and numerical approaches.
Ulli Stoltz is a mechanical engineer working in the hydraulic development of water turbines at Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co. KG. He is focussed on the economical and ecological optimization of the hydraulics for new and existing hydroelectric power plants.
Martin Schletterer is biologist and works as head of the group Ecology at TIWAG. He is also a guest scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Vienna), where he holds a venia docendi in limnology.
