Reservoir sedimentation and turbine abrasion remain serious issues for hydropower plants. Siltation causes loss of reservoir capacity. The loss can be serious, reducing reservoirs to giant mud flats in just a few decades, even less. Dr. A. Palmieri of the World Bank has estimated annual 2% reservoir capacity loss to sedimentation, globally. Local extremes are common and well known all over the world. Careful sediment management planning before and during plant operation is emerging as an area of emphasis .

While reservoir capacity loss is a long-term issue, turbine abrasion leads to a short-term and immediate financial loss in run-of-river plants, especially in India and other S Asian nations. Coarse grains of sediment, driven by the force of high-velocity water destroy turbines and accessories in days or weeks. Automated warning is a necessity.

Until the development of laser diffraction (LD) technology by Sequoia Scientific, Inc. of USA, sediment data prior to project planning was either non-existent, nominal, or flawed due to use of inaccurate instruments. Real-time monitoring of reservoir siltation is still in infancy. LD technology instruments are now being installed at a number of plants around the world. At this conference, Dr. Agrawal, founder and president of Sequoia Scientific, Inc. will present a case study at the showcase installation in Ecuador – another region of high sediment loads. The data reveal river characteristics, time-scales for changes, and strategies for better planning, monitoring and turbine protection. Guest speaker, Mr. Hans G. Enggrob, managing director of DHI (India) Pvt. Ltd. will speak on reservoir siltation and how sediment management can be improved by use of modeling technology with due incorporation of sediment monitoring data. Case studies from DHI’s projects around the World as well as India will be presented.

The Conference is convened by Sequoia Scientific, Inc. of Bellevue, Washington. Sequoia’s President Dr Agrawal is the inventor of the LISST laser diffraction technology instruments for use in these applications. He holds a doctorate in engineering from University of California, Berkeley and has published extensively in the field of sediment transport. He is India born, having graduated from IIT-Bombay in 1969. He is a member of the Sedinet group convened by the World Bank. Dr. Agrawal will be available for informal discussion after the seminar.

Mr. Hans G. Enggrob has 22 years of civil engineering experience from river and reservoir hydraulics, sediment transport and morphology. He has worked as team leader and sediment specialist in numerous projects around the World and was the core developer of e.g. MIKE 21C sediment model. In recent years, he moved towards general management in DHI and is now MD of DHI in India, where many sediment projects are also been carried out.

Dr. Pradhan has over 24 years of professional experience in directing and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams of experts engaged in various types of Water Resources, Urban Water Utility, Hydro Power, Environmental Management and Costal and Estuarine Projects. He is a leading expert in the field of Sediment Management in Water Resources Projects, Coastal areas, Environmental and Ground Water Planning and Management using state of the art of the IT tools like modeling, DSS, Remote Sensing, Real-Time Data Management, etc. He has published more than 40 research articles in the leading Indian and International journals.