Accounting for Hydrologic and Land-Atmospheric Functions of Man-Made Reservoirs across Canadian Regions

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Manmade reservoirs are key to water resource management in Canada and throughout the world, and are used for multiple purposes, ranging from hydropower production to water supply, flood protection and recreation. Despite major socio-economic benefits, massive environmental changes are associated with reservoir operation. Most importantly, significant regulative effects are associated with reservoirs’ impoundment, which can severely perturb the streamflow regime and surface water storage in time and space. In addition, reservoirs alter the natural land cover to open water, and therefore, perturb the water and energy fluxes between the land and the atmosphere. This may further interact with local and regional climate, and lead to a new form of “anthropogenic climate change”, beyond the emission of Greenhouse Gases.