Hierarchical Framework for Reservoir Co-management: A Cross-scale Reservoir Dispatch Paradigm Balancing Energy and Morphogenic Flow Needs

Reservoir operations often disrupt riverine ecological equilibrium, particularly threatening aquatic species like fish, necessitating ecological scheduling to reconcile water resource use and ecosystem conservation. In cascaded river systems, the mismatch between environmental flow requirements during fish breeding periods and reservoir discharge patterns underscores the need for precision scheduling strategies. This study addresses this gap by deconstructing ecological peak-making processes through a derived peak-making formula and proposes two peak-making factors to efficiently identify feasible peak-making windows with minimal ecological storage reallocation. By integrating medium- to long-term reservoir pre-allocation with short-term daily ecological pulse coordination during breeding periods, we developed a cascaded multi-scale optimization model that evaluates conventional and ecological peak-integrated dispatch schemes. Applied in the Dd River Basin, the model can quickly identify ecological peak-making period, achieving target flow magnitudes with negligible power losses—0.14%, 0.34%, and 0.23% in wet, normal, and dry years, respectively. The framework resolves the “ecological protection and power supply” conflict, providing a replicable blueprint for global clean energy bases to transition from eco-adaptive to eco-leading dispatching paradigms aligned with Sustainable Development Goals.