Study on Sediment Regime Changes in Downstream of the Ba River, Vietnam under the Impact of Reservoirs System

Reservoirs system in upstream of Ba River has been affecting to the hydrology and sediment regime at the downstream. Sediment imbalance causes consequences such as erosion at river bank, lack of sediment supply to downstream areas and deposition/erosion in estuaries. This study focused on a quantitative assessment of the impact of Ba Ha reservoir and Song Hinh reservoir on sediment regime at the Cung Son hydrological station (12 km downstream of Ba Ha reservoir and 45 km from the mouth of the Da Dien river). Research used analytical and statistical methods with flow and suspended sediment data measured at the Cung Son hydrological station from 1977 to 2016. The results show that the system of these two reservoirs has a huge impact to the sedimentation regime, especially after the operation of Ba Ha reservoir. The average amount of sediment in the period before and after 2008 significantly reduced from about 2.5 million to about 1 million tons per year.