Using windbreaks for decreasing lake and reservoir evaporation: A case study from Iran

Abstract

Evaporation from reservoirs is an important issue frequently occurring in dry, hot regions like Iran. Since the laboratory and field studies of evaporation control are difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and the investigation of various possible modes is not possible, numerical models with high capabilities are widely used to analyze the hydrological processes. This article aimed to investigate the effect of windbreaks on reducing evaporation of lakes and reservoirs in dry areas and determine the most optimal location and layout of windbreaks using the FLUENT model. Initial investigations showed that wind is the most important factor of evaporation in the Chahnimeh Region of Sistan, Iran. The results showed that if solid windbreaks with 25% casement (height of 2 and distance of 66 m) are vertically installed in a northwesterly direction, evaporation can be effectively reduced. Although the use of wind breaks in Chahnimeh can help significantly reduce evaporation, it cannot be fully controlled. That is why diagonal windbreaks with 30, 45, and 60° were designed to integrate the windbreaks with other evaporation control methods such as solar panels. The results showed that 60° had the greatest amount of evaporation reduction and were integrated with other methods to control evaporation.