Project Leader:
Research Partners:
Dr. Austin Polebitski (University of Wisconsin-Platteville); Dr. Ben Letcher (USGS); MA Department of Transportation; US Army Corps of Engineers; State agencies; The Nature ConservancyProject Fellows:
Status:
OngoingScience Themes:
For the past four years, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have funded a study at UMass to evaluate the impacts of climate change on the biological resources in river and to investigate how the negative impacts of reservoir regulation could be ameliorated in the face of climate change. It is fortuitous that this study provides an excellent basis for future “watershed” type studies that may be performed by the NECSC. The study has resulted in a full calibrated hydrology model of the Connecticut River Basin, a set of 112 different future hydrology scenarios associated with climate change, and a simulation and optimization model of the major reservoirs in the basin.
Publications:
- Steinschneider, S., Bernstein, A., Palmer, R.N., and Polebitski, A. (2014). Reservoir Management Optimization for Basin-Wide Ecological Restoration in the Connecticut River, ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 140(9), 04014023
- Anleitner, J., Palmer, R., Lutz, K., and Kennedy, K. (2014) Managing for Floodplains and Aquatic Species: A Framework for Multi-Objective Reservoir Operations, Proceedings of ASCE's 2014 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, pp. 1060-1069.
-
Bernstein, Alec (2013). Sustainable Water Management Using Environmental Flows In The Connecticut River. UMass Amherst Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects. Paper 62.
-
Bernstein, A., Palmer, R.N., (2013) Subdaily Hydropower Optimization for Relicensing in the Connecticut River, Proceedings of ASCE's 2013 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, pp. 2096-2105.
Presentations:
- November 30, 2015: Connecticut River Optimization Model Training Workshop with The Nature Conservancy, Connecticut Watershed Council, and other stakeholders
Other:
News Items
- Connecticut River Flow Restoration Report Released - 2018 UMass Amherst
- Connecticut River Flow Restoration Study- 2018 NE CASC
- River study: more of the same Brattleboro Reformer, June 18, 2018
- No easy path forward to make river dams more ecologically sound, but study increases understanding. Daily Hampshire Gazette, July 10, 2018
