The Zambezi basin in Southern Africa will be used as a case study. Hydropower generation is a dominant feature in water management of the Zambezi basin, and a major player in the Southern African Power Pool.

Research position 'Policy instruments for environmental flows implementation in a reservoir dominated river basin'

The researcher will develop and test policy instruments and regulatory frameworks that effectively consider environmental flows when dispatching hydropower plants in a loose power pool (self‐dispatch hydrothermal electrical system) for the Zambezi river basin Main research questions to be answered:

• What are the existing operating policies, institutional arrangements, SADC power pool arrangements/ requirements and context for existing and planned infrastructure in the Zambezi basin?
• What alternative policy instruments, reservoir operating policies, water allocation policies, basin sharing mechanisms can incorporate ecological benefits?
• How can the performance of these instruments and policies be modelled, analyzed and evaluated most effectively?
• Which institutional and policy arrangements can be proposed to the Zambezi River Authority, the Zambezi Watercourse Commission, power companies and other relevant stakeholders to effectively implement environmental flows in the Zambezi basin?

The study will be supervised by Susan Graas and Professor Pieter van der Zaag (both UNESCO‐IHE), Dr Dinis Juizo (Eduardo Mondlane University) and Dr Innocent Nhapi (University of Zimbabwe).

Read more about the vacancy in the PDF File.