Marcoie et al. (2025) Half a Century of Civil Engineering in the Bahlui River Hydrographic System: The Unexpected Journey from Gray Structures to Hybrid Resilience

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Identification

• Journal: Hydrology
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-29
• Authors: Nicolae Marcoie, Șerban Chihaia, Andras-István Barta, Daniel Toma, Valentin Boboc, Mihai Gabriel Balan, Cătălin Balan, Mircea Teodor Nechita
• DOI: 10.3390/hydrology13010015

Research Groups

Not explicitly stated in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study appraised the long-term contribution of 17 man-made reservoirs in the Bahlui River basin, Romania, to flood attenuation and drought buffering over five decades, finding strong flood control but a decline in engineered drought mitigation, which is increasingly offset by expanding green infrastructure.

Objective

• To appraise the contribution of man-made reservoirs to flood attenuation and drought buffering over time in the Bahlui River basin, considering climate change and variable socioeconomic conditions.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Bahlui River basin, northeastern Romania.
• Temporal Scale: Over five decades (reservoirs constructed mainly between the 1960s and 1980s).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.
• Data sources: Most recent technical reservoir reports, land-use evolution data, and present operational functions.

Main Results

• Flood mitigation is a consistent and reliable function of the reservoirs.
• Peak-flow reductions commonly exceed 60–90% of design discharges at the basin scale.
• Engineered drought mitigation functions (irrigation and industrial water supply) have significantly decreased due to socioeconomic changes starting in 1989.
• The gradual expansion of green infrastructure (e.g., wetlands and riparian vegetation) has improved passive water retention and low-flow buffering capacity.
• These developments have led to variable levels of hybrid hydrological resilience.
• While artificial reservoirs maintain strong flood-control capacity, their contribution to drought mitigation is increasingly dependent on the integration of ecological components.

Contributions

• Provides a long-term assessment (over five decades) of reservoir performance under evolving climate and socioeconomic conditions.
• Highlights the shift in reservoir functionality, particularly the decline of engineered drought mitigation and the emergent role of green infrastructure.
• Emphasizes the importance of "green-gray interactions" for effective long-term reservoir management and hydrological resilience.

Funding

Not explicitly stated in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Marcoie2025Half,
  author = {Marcoie, Nicolae and Chihaia, Șerban and Barta, Andras-István and Toma, Daniel and Boboc, Valentin and Balan, Mihai Gabriel and Balan, Cătălin and Nechita, Mircea Teodor},
  title = {Half a Century of Civil Engineering in the Bahlui River Hydrographic System: The Unexpected Journey from Gray Structures to Hybrid Resilience},
  journal = {Hydrology},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/hydrology13010015},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology13010015}
}