Han et al. (2026) Revealing Upstream Dam Operations under Information Asymmetry for Integrated Water Resources Management

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-13
• Authors: Kwang-Hee Han, Seokhyeon Kim, Rajeshwar Mehrotra, Ashish Sharma
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae9967

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study develops a framework to infer upstream dam operations—including water levels, inflows, and releases—using only multi-source satellite observations and hydrological modeling to reduce information asymmetry in data-restricted transboundary basins.

Objective

• To demonstrate that upstream dam operations can be reconstructed in politically constrained or data-scarce regions without relying on in situ measurements or official data sharing.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Transboundary river basin.
• Temporal Scale: Not explicitly specified (covers periods including extreme flood events).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Rainfall–runoff framework, hydrological modeling, and dam operation modules (including those with hydraulic constraints).
• Data sources: Satellite altimetry, optical imagery, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), L-band microwave signals, and satellite-based precipitation and evaporative demand data.

Main Results

• Successfully reconstructed reservoir water levels, inflow, and release behavior using spaceborne data.
• Downstream SAR-derived surrogate discharge signals showed strong agreement with available gauge observations ($r > 0.8$).
• The framework accurately captured extreme flood conditions, including near pass-through behavior during peak inflow events.
• The inclusion of simple hydraulic constraints in the operation modules significantly improved the physical plausibility and consistency of the inferred releases.

Contributions

• Establishes a transferable hydroinformatics approach to transform satellite observations into operational insights, enhancing transparency and downstream risk awareness in politically sensitive basins where data sharing is restricted.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Han2026Revealing,
  author = {Han, Kwang-Hee and Kim, Seokhyeon and Mehrotra, Rajeshwar and Sharma, Ashish},
  title = {Revealing Upstream Dam Operations under Information Asymmetry for Integrated Water Resources Management},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ae9967},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae9967}
}