Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resources and Environmental Ecology of Ministry of Education,Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, P. R. China

In order to evaluate the need of controlling the temperature of water discharged from the Fenhe Reservoir, the reservoir water temperature distribution was examined. A three-dimensional mathematical model was used to simulate the in-plane and vertical distribution of water temperature. The parameters of the model were calibrated with field data of the temperature distribution in the Fenhe Reservoir. The simulated temperature of discharged water is consistent with the measured data. The difference in temperature between the discharged water and the natural river channel is less than 3℃ under the current operating conditions. This will not significantly impact the environment of downstream areas