A method for implementing the real-time dynamic control of flood-limited water level

Many studies have proven that the dynamic control of flood-limited water level (DC-FLWL) is an effective methodology to balance flood control and water conservation for reservoir operations during the flood season. However, these studies have focused on determining the bound of FLWL; few studies have investigated the implementation of real-time DC-FLWL, which actually is the core of DC-FLWL. To implement real-time DC-FLWL, a new method for considering rain forecast is presented in the present study. The proposed method includes two procedures: prerelease and prefill, which constitute the prerelease–refill and the prefill–prerelease schemes. For each scheme, the categorical rain forecast with a lead time of 24 h is used as the trigger for different actions, while hydrological forecast and discharge are used to calculate the action details, including the water level reserved and the amount of discharge water. The method is examined via the operation of the flood event “19960810,” which occurred in the catchment of the Biliuhe reservoir in China. The results show that although the maximum water level and the maximum discharge of the three schemes have the same value, the water level at the end of both the prerelease–refill and the prefill–prerelease schemes of DC-FLWL is 68.8 and 68.5 m, which are both higher than the planning scheme, i.e., 68.1 m. These findings further confirm the effectiveness of DC-FLWL and also prove that the proposed method is suitable for implementing real-time DC-FLWL.