ICIWaRM Holds Working Meetings in the Ukraine and Moldova on Multi-Reservoir Modeling of the Dniester River
As a key milestone in the program on “Climate Change and Security in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus”, which is supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), ICIWaRM hosted technical working meetings in both Ukraine and Moldova to introduce the multi-reservoir model to members of the in-country working groups.
The Ukrainian workshop was held in Kiev, Ukraine from 22-24 October 2014 and the Moldovan workshop was held in Chisinau, Moldova from 28-30 October 2014. They were lead by Dr. Rolf Olsen, Dr. Kristin Gilroy, Mr. Fauwaz Hanbali and Dr. Eugene Stakhiv of the US Army Institute for Water Resources. There were 47 and 40 participants, respectively, in the Ukrainian and Moldovan working meetings; these came from government ministries, the private sector, and academia. They included water resources specialists, economists, ecologists and modelers.
The purpose of the multi-reservoir modeling activity is to improve transboundary water management and build resilience to climate change within the Dniester River Basin. The Dniester River has its headwaters in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, flows through Moldova, and reemerges again as a delta in Ukrainian territory before flowing into the Black Sea. The ICIWaRM team is developing two key products: (i) a working HEC-ResSim model that will integrate the flows and reservoir operations of the two main reservoirs in Ukraine and Moldova and, (ii) a framework for risk-based decision making and evaluation that will deal with climate uncertainties that are associated with reservoir management and future investment decisions needed for climate adaption in three key sectors – agriculture, flood control and ecological protection.
The ICIWaRM team provided basic training of the ResSim program and Dniester River Basin model to ensure that the local working groups understood their capabilities. The model was vetted, approved and accepted by working groups in Ukraine and Moldova for use in future work. Detailed discussions of both planning and real-time applications of the model were conducted by both the Moldovan and Ukrainian working groups. Key modelers were identified in both countries; they will help revise and update the model for future climate risk assessment and real-time reservoir operations within the basin.