Abstract
We investigated flood control capacity of 484 agricultural reservoirs with storage capacity of over 1 million $m^3$ in South Korea. In general, agricultural reservoir secures flood control capacity by setting up limited water level during flood season from late June to mid-September. The flood control capacity of an agricultural reservoir during flood season can be divided into stable flood control capacity during non-flood season, stable flood control capacity associated with limited water level, and unstable flood control capacity associated with limited water level. In general, the flood control capacity significantly (P < 0.001) increased with reservoir capacity irrespective of type of spillway. The unstable flood control capacity accounted for about 20 % of reservoir capacity in the uncontrolled reservoirs. The study reservoirs showed flood control capacity of 0.60-65 billion (B) $m^3$ and stable flood control capacity of 0.43-47 B $m^3$, depending on the upper and lower limited water levels during the flood season. The stable flood control capacity of the gated reservoirs (0.29-0.33 B $m^3$) was about two times than that of reservoirs with uncontrolled spillways (0.14 B $m^3$). The ratios of stable flood control capacity to reservoir capacity for agricultural reservoirs range from 21 to 23 %, similar to that for Daecheong multipurpose dam. Moreover, the reservoirs with over 100 mm ratio of flood control capacity to watershed area accounted for 38 % of total gated reservoirs. The results indicate that many agricultural reservoirs may contribute to controlling flood in the small watersheds during the flood season.
