using high resolution Hydrological Modeling

• Main Authors: Tinna Þórarinsdóttir, Veðurstofu Ísl, Veðurstofa Íslands
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.233.1589; http://www.vedur.is/media/2012_001web.pdf

Large portion of the total energy consumption in Iceland originates from hydropower. The last estimation of the hydropower potential was conducted thirty years ago, in 1981. Since then, there have been major technical developments that call for a renewal of estimation of hydropower potential. The main objective of this study is develop a methodology that can be used for calculating and mapping of technical hydropower potential in Iceland, using current technology and data available at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO). The technical hydropower potential represents all potential hydropower without assuming any limitations, such as environmental protection. In order to evaluate hydropower potential, head and discharge along the river channel needs to be estimated. The elevation data, carrying the head data, was provided with different data grids from the ArcGIS database at the IMO. The discharge data was estimated with the hydrological model WaSiM. The model generates gridded runoff which is then routed along the river channel. Gridded precipitation data was also routed and used as a proxy for runoff in order to study the benefit in using an advanced hydrological model