Study on the Deposition Reduction Effect of the Sediment–Sluice Tunnel in Zengwen Reservoir

Reservoirs are a crucial part of the human water supply system. The effectiveness and service life of a reservoir is decided mainly by its storage capacity, and as such, preventing reservoir capacity loss is of high interest worldwide. Due to climate change in recent years, precipitation types have changed, and heavy rainfall events have become more severe and frequent. Rainfall causes soil erosion in slope lands and transports large amounts of sediment downstream, forming deposition. This causes reservoir storage capacity to fall rapidly and decreases reservoir service life. The Sediment–Sluice Tunnel can reduce rapid deposition in reservoirs and is, thus, widely employed. By simulating sediment transportation in reservoirs, deposition reduction after building the Sediment–Sluice Tunnel can be evaluated. This study used the Physiographic Soil Erosion–Deposition (PSED) model to simulate the flow discharge and suspended sediment discharge flowing into the Zengwen reservoir then used the depth-averaged two-dimensional bed evolution model to simulate the sediment transportation and deposition in a hydrological process. Simulation results showed that the Sediment–Sluice Tunnel effectively reduced deposition and transported sediment closer to the spillway and Sediment–Sluice Tunnel gate. The deposition distribution with the Sediment–Sluice Tunnel built is more beneficial to the deployment of other dredging works.