A Decision Support Tool for a Multipurpose Dam Sustainable Management: The Case of Lom-Pangar in Cameroon

Abstract

The recognition and acceptance of the impending hydroelectric production have been the essential function of a dam. With sustainable development and the demands, the need for multifunctional management of water resources for economic, social, and ecological optimization is now required. It is, therefore, necessary to invent new management tools to maximize the overall profitability. This improved management multifunctional dam would integrate several other components such as fishing, navigation, irrigation, flood protection, in addition to the essential character of the restraint. Considering the optimal monthly flows of regulation according to the three rainfall states that we have identified, we used dynamic programming to predict direct hydroelectric production combined with the annual fishing production of the Lom-Pangar reservoir dam. The particularity of the aid tool that we proposed in this study is based on the fact that the management rules obtained in respect with the ecological constraints and guarantee for this reservoir dam is a multifunctionality and an optimal exploitation and inscribe to a sustainable development approach.