Ecological Operation of Three Gorges Cascade Reservoirs

Reservoir alters water levels and downstream water flow patterns significantly, and the hydropower operation system has negative effects on the structure and function of river ecosystems. One important measure for mitigating these impacts is to meet the ecological flow of the river in reservoir operation. The minimum ecological flow and suitable ecological flow with-considering and without-considering ecological factors firstly were analyzed, and an ecological operation model of cascade reservoirs was to be established by coupling different scheduling objectives based on non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) in this paper. Finally, case study was conducted to indicate that the ecological flow plays an important role in the maintenance of river ecosystem and species.