The 2011 Federal Water Act requires the cantons to clean up the impacts associated with the use of hydropower. In particular, operators of hydroelectric facilities must ensure that fish migration can take place and that sediment transit is functional, and must reduce the impact of hydrological alterations (hydropeaking, minimum flow). This comprehensive remediation programme concerns around 900 hydroelectric facilities in Switzerland, and should be completed by 2030.
The Moulinets dam (Orbe, Vaud) is an obstacle to fish migration, but an upstream lift system and a downstream channel system were installed when the new dam was built in 2012. An electric screen was also installed in 2018 to prevent fish from entering the turbine headrace.
This telemetric (PIT, radio and acoustic) monitoring project aims to measure the success of the existing fish passage systems and optimise them where necessary. Three objectives have been defined:
Project partner(s)
Project leader - team
Franck Cattaneo
(HEPIA),
David Grimardias (HEPIA)
,
Céline Artero
(HEPIA),
Eliane Demierre
(HEPIA),
Antoine Polblanc
(HEPIA)