Model-Based Assessment of Water, Food, and Energy Trade-Offs in a Cascade of Multipurpose Reservoirs: Case Study of the Sesan Tributary of the Mekong River

Abstract

The Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia is undergoing rapid development in the exploitation of its water resources. Although hydropower is the most dominant driver for water development, the possibilities for multipurpose reservoirs have been increasingly discussed but not well studied. The authors assess the potential benefits and negative impacts of a multipurpose reservoir cascade facilitating hydropower and irrigation in the Sesan River, a transboundary tributary of the Mekong. A model-based assessment approach was developed where the hydropower operations of a cascade of reservoirs were simulated together with the irrigation water withdrawals. The assessment revealed that the reservoirs created considerable irrigation potential (28,348 ha), and the resulting losses for hydropower generation were relatively small (