Melsew Amsalu Wubneh presented his research findings titled Reservoir performance assessment and operations in Lake Tana, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia, in response to climate change and water management.
His work highlights the crucial role of Lake Tana—a key hub for Ethiopia’s agricultural economy—and explores how climate change and upstream water usage could affect its future performance.
It was demonstrated that, when considering water abstraction and climate change, the performance of the lake in the future will be adversely impacted. The following results were obtained in the study: the vulnerability was found to be 4.5% and 4% under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5% and 4%, respectively, in the 2040s, and 4% for both RCPs in the 2070s, which is less than 50%. Therefore, the reservoir will not experience a shortage of inflow to meet the desired demand. The resilience value was found to be 6.5% and 7.1% in the 2040s for both scenarios, and similarly in the 2070s: 7.5% and 7%, respectively, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. This is below 50%, hence the reservoir will take a long time to recover from failure. Overall, the lake will not perform well enough to satisfy the required demands, even if it does not face a shortage of flow.
The conference provided a great opportunity to share scientific research with other researchers specialising in hydrology and water resources management. The conference offered the opportunity to establish collaborations and networks with researchers and academics from all over the world.
Melsew Amsalu Wubneh is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Soil Physics and Rural Water Management, Department of Landscape, Water and Infrastructure at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences BOKU. He is also a lecturer at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia. His PhD research is supervised by Prof. Christine Stumpp and Dr. Stefan Strohmeier and is funded by the APPEAR programme. His doctoral research focuses on long-term hydro-climate processes and their associated impacts on water resources in the Ribb watershed in the Upper Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia. Prior to joining BOKU in 2024, Melsew worked as a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering at the University of Gondar. He holds a Master of Science in Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering from Bahir Dar University, having graduated in 2020 with the support of a collaborative fund from the University of Gondar and the Ministry of Education.
