Coastal reservoir

Aerial view of Plover Cove coastal reservoir.

Coastal reservoir is a type of reservoir to store fresh water on sea coast area near a river delta. Saemanguem in South Korea, Marina Barrage in Singapore, Qingcaosha in China and Plover Cove in Hongkong, Delta Works in Netherlands, Thanneermukkom Bund in India etc are few existing coastal reservoirs.[1]

Advantages

Unlike land based water reservoirs there is no land submergence in case of coastal reservoirs.[2][3] They store water without disturbing people and natural habitat by replacing standing salt water on the sea area by river flood water.[2] The coastal reservoir area is separated from the sea by building earth dikes by dredging. Water is pumped from these reservoirs for irrigation, municipal and industrial purposes. Some times used for flood control and land reclamation from the sea coast. The social and environmental impacts of coastal reservoirs are negligible compared to land based water reservoirs.[2] The construction cost is few times less than the cost of land based reservoirs since there is no expenditure for acquiring the vast land area, the submerged immovable properties and the rehabilitation of displaced people.[2] The sea side of the coastal reservoir can also be used for locating deep sea harbor.

Construction

Map of proposed Kalpasar Project coastal reservoir in India

The coastal reservoirs earth dikes extending up to 8 m msl high, is in the form of two parallel dikes separated by 1000 meters gap. The main purpose of the twin dikes is to prevent any sea water seepage into coastal reservoir as its water level is below the sea water level.[4] The water level between the dikes is always maintained up to 1 m above the sea level by pumping fresh water from the coastal reservoir to the 1000 m gap between the dikes. The higher level fresh water barrier between the two dikes fully eliminate any sea water seepage in to the coastal reservoir by establishing fresh water seepage to the sea. The rain water falling on the coastal reservoir area and the run off water from the catchment area of its minor coastal rivers is adequate to cater the seepage and evaporation losses from the coastal reservoir. The 1000 m gap between the two dikes is also used as deep water mega harbor for shipping, ship breaking, ship building, safe berthing of crude oil, LPG, LNG, etc ships with floating storage options, etc. For shipping purpose, the breakwater outer dike facing the sea is envisaged with few locks fitted with twin gates for access to the open sea. The top surface of inner dike would serve as access to the main land from the mega harbor with rail and road links. The coastal reservoir whose full reservoir water level (FRL) is at 0.0 m msl, would also drastically reduce the cyclone damage and flooding in coastal areas. It would also greatly improve the irrigated coastal lands drainage. The dikes of coastal reservoirs would also reclaim coastal lands by giving protection from tsunamis, storm surges and tidal bores. The coastal reservoir area can also be used for locating floating solar power plants to generate the needed water pumping power.[5] Also top surface of the inner dike of the coastal reservoirs can be used as transnational highways & railways. Coastal reservoirs are truly multi purpose infrastructure projects with shipping & transport, land reclamation, irrigation, renewable power generation, etc facilities.

The dikes are built by dredging sand and clay from the nearby shallow sea bed using dredgers fueled by LNG or Hydrogen fuel cells or battery power to reduce the construction cost. Major river's water would be diverted in controlled manner to the coastal reservoirs from their delta channels or by flood flow canals by constructing barrages across the major rivers. Their excessive flood flows are directly routed to the sea. The coastal reservoirs located on either side of a major river course/path are interconnected by submarine ducts/pipes of suitable length.[4] Wherever existing ports/waterways and famous beach resorts are to be preserved, the long coastal reservoir is broken in to parts and interconnected by submarine ducts of suitable length. During lean flow periods, minimum environmental flows would be maintained in medium and major rivers up to sea by letting water to the sea directly or via submarine ducts of suitable length. It would also prevent deterioration of water quality in coastal reservoirs by preventing inflow of inferior quality river waters with higher salt load. For inland shipping, the deep water ports (1000 m wide) would be connected with locks arrangement to the major rivers via delta channels and to the adjacent coastal reservoir. Fish migration to and fro to the sea or rivers is possible as the rivers are not completely blocked. Navigation paths from sea to the river via deep sea port will also serve as fish migration routs. However the negative aspects of these man made lagoons are to be evaluated in detail and proper remedial steps shall be incorporated to minimize the damage to coastal ecosystem by the presence of fresh water lagoon as barrier to the sea.[6]

Future projects

There are vast deserts in all continents (western part of South America, northern and south western Africa, middle east in Asia, south eastern part of USA, Australia, etc.) and also water surplus regions nearer to these deserts. It is technically and economically feasible to construct man made fresh water coastal reservoirs / lagoons on the continental shelf of the sea up to 20 meters depth from the coast line to supply fresh water to desert areas from nearby water surplus/high rainfall areas. Excess water from the high rainfall regions will be collected in the coastal reservoirs at sea level and this fresh water is pumped to irrigate desert lands from the other end of the lengthy coastal reservoirs.[7] In other words, the proposal is interconnecting rivers with a sea level / sub sea level contour canal (at least five km wide) to facilitate water transfer.

The following are the feasible projects:

The above gigantic coastal reservoir projects would cover most of the desert areas of the world except the high lands of central Asian deserts. Water needs of these areas can be fully met by diverting water of Siberian rivers. Thus most of the lands which are not available for cultivation and forestry can be turned in to habitat to copious greenery which would help to mitigate the global warming process.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Coastal reservoirs strategy for water resource development-a review of future trend". Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "India is not running out of water, water is running out of India". Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  3. ↑ "International Association for Coastal Reservoir Research". Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Feasibility of coastal reservoir to harness Godavari river surplus waters". Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "Green Power Island: A blue battery for green energy". Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Assessment of social and environmental impacts of coastal reservoirs". Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Coastal Reservoir, Journal of Sustainable Urbanization, Planning and Progress". Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  8. ↑ IWMI Research Report 83. "Spatial variation in water supply and demand across river basins of India" (PDF). Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  9. ↑ "Efficacy of coastal reservoirs to address India's water shortage by impounding excess river flood waters near the coast". Retrieved 9 July 2018.
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