Innovative methods to release fine sediments from seasonal reservoirs

The papers present three innovative solutions for fine sediment manage- ments in seasonal reservoirs, which are at different stages of maturity. Operational reservoir stirring using jet-like inflows may facilitate sediment routing, at no addi- tional cost and without water losses. Forced stirring, using the SEDMIX device, has shown very promising results in laboratory and from computational modelling and is now entering the phase of proof-of-concept at prototype scale. Sediment venting through the bottom outlets has been object of extensive research, allowing this solution to be consistently integrated in design criteria from now onwards. Future work is required to complete the development of the first two solutions, both in terms of physical principles (inlet/outlet jet-flows) and prototype scale-up (SEDMIX). Regarding venting, compiling data of field operations is the next logical steps in view of obtaining adequate feedback on the water volumes consumed as function of venting efficiency, as well as downstream impacts in terms of released sediment concentration.