Hydropeaking: a multiscale perspective

This presentation aims at covering different and interdisciplinary research aspects focusing on hydropeaking, highlighting in particular which temporal scales are relevant at different spatial scales. We will present how the impact of hydropeaking at the catchment scale changed in the past decades due to changes in legislation and the energy market and the role of hydropeaking in the context of energy complementarity. We will then focus on the effects of sudden river stage fluctuations at the reach scale and their impact on surface water-groundwater interaction and eventually on energy and mass transfer processes, considering seasonal, weekly and sub-daily time scales. Finally, laboratory scale investigations will show the effects of hydropeaking on solute mixing in porous aquifers. The environmental impact of hydropeaking on the ecosystem calls for effective mitigation strategies and policies to find a sustainable compromise between energy production and ecosystem preservation which are capable of tackling processes occurring at multiple spatial and temporal scales.