This thesis is an assessment of socio-economic development of Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey after GAP Project. The aim of this study is to analyze and discuss impacts of the GAP Project and to evaluate achievements of the most important sustainable development project of Turkey. Several social and economic indicators, like demographic structure, education, health, financial figures, industry, agriculture and energy, have been analyzed and evaluated in order to obtain reliable and realistic conclusions. The main conclusion of this thesis states that Southeastern Anatolia Region has developed both socially and economically with the impacts of GAP Project. Rapid economic growth, increased agricultural and industrial activities are the evidences of this development. However, another conclusion of the study indicates that the achievements of GAP cannot ensure the expected socio-economic development of the Region. This conclusion shows the necessity of questioning the success of the governance and execution of the GAP Project.

Waterhammer is an undesirable event, caused by sudden flow changes in a confined pipe system. When it occurs, its consequences can be very costly and even sometimes deadly. In general, it may be encountered in the penstocks of hydropower plants, water transmission lines, water networks, etc. Therefore, the operation guidelines of the hydropower plants should be defined correctly. In this thesis, waterhammer problems in pumped storage hydropower plants are investigated. Time dependent flow conditions in the penstocks are studied by the help of computer software, HAMMER. The software solves nonlinear differential equations by using method of characteristics. Firstly, hydraulic transients for various operational cases are investigated using some scenarios. Then a surge tank, protective device for waterhammer, is added to the system and for the same operational cases, hydraulic transients are studied again. Finally, the results obtained from the operation of the system with and without surge tank are compared. Wind-hydro hybrid systems are also included in the study.

In this study, hydrogeological modeling of the Somme river basin situated in the north of France was made with special emphasis on the stream-aquifer interaction. The coupled model developed at Ecole des Mines de Paris was used. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools were incorporated during all the stages of modeling process for both preparation of input data and visualization of the results of simulations. Initially, the process began with Digital Elevation Model (DEM) analysis. Afterwards, the surface and aquifer grids were generated by using nested grid generators and refinement was made on the stream network and subcatchment boundaries in order to increase the accuracy of numerical solution. In order to run the surface model, meteorological forcing, land use and soil type data were acquired. Surface model was used to partition the precipitation into evapotranspiration, infiltration and surface runoff components. A steady-state piezometric head distribution was computed by the groundwater model to serve as an initial condition to the coupled model. The flow in the unsaturated zone was simulated by using Nash cascade model. The unsteady groundwater and surface flow simulations were performed by taking into consideration the stream-aquifer interaction on a daily time step. The calibration and validation were realized by using the streamflow and piezometric head measurements distributed around the basin. The strong groundwater influence on the hydrology of the basin is well represented by the model. Comparisons of predicted flooded areas in year 2001 were made with other models and a satellite derived image. In the end, several sensitivity analyses were performed for several parameters concerning the groundwater flow.

In this study, a qualitative and comparative investigation on sediment transport equations used in prediction of rserevoir sedimentation is presented. 32 sediment transport equations, which are selected by literature review on sand and gravel size ranges, grouped according to the median particle sizes on which their derivation based. In order to compare these equations computer program DELTA, which is a one dimensional simulation program developed by Graf and Altinakar (1998) for the prediction of delta formation in resrvoirs, is used. Computer simulation is performed within each group of sediment transport equations in order to determine the most suitable equation for corresponding median diameter of sediment particles. 8 of the equations gave simulation results that are in good agreement with average values related to delta deposition extent, height and location in the reservoir. The effects of river slope change and median diameter change on delta deposition also investigated and simulation results are compared with previous model studies.

In the present study, possible scale effects on the formation of air-entraining vortices at horizontal intakes are studied experimentally. Basic dimensionless parameters that govern the onset of vortices at a horizontal intake in a model and a prototype are stated by dimensional analysis. Series of experiments are conducted on four intake pipes of different diameters located in a large reservoir. The relationship of critical submergence ratio with other dimensionless parameters is considered for a given Froude number and it is found out that the critical submergence ratio is affected by model length scale ratio and its natural result of side-wall clearance ratio and Reynolds number differences between model and prototypes. It is observed that, side-wall clearance ratio is not effective on the critical submergence ratio after it exceeds about 6. In addition to this, Reynolds number limit, beyond which viscous forces do not affect the vortex flow, is found out to be increasing with the increase in Froude number. An empirical relationship, which gives the critical submergence ratio as a function of Froude number, side-wall clearance ratio and Reynolds number is obtained by using data collected in the experiments.

Many river bridges fail or are seriously damaged due to excessive local scouring around piers and abutments. To protect a bridge from scour-induced failure, it should be designed properly against excessive scouring and its scour criticality should be checked regularly throughout the service life to take prompt action. The Federal Highway Administration of United States (FHWA) developed a program, HYRISK, as a basis for evaluation of existing scour failure risk of a bridge. It provides implementation of a risk-based model, which is used to calculate the annual risk of scour failure of a bridge or series of bridges in monetary values. A case study is carried out for a bridge crossing Fol Creek in Black Sea Region (close to Vakfikebir), for the illustration of this software. Besides, hydraulic analysis and scour depth computations of the bridge are carried out via HEC-RAS program. Also, a study is carried out to recommend scour countermeasures that can be applied to the aforementioned bridge.

Demand for energy is constantly growing both in the world and in Turkey. Sustainable development being an important concept, development of small hydro power projects has been popular in recent years. Eastern Black Sea Basin in Turkey has a lot of small hydro power potential because of high amount of precipitation and existence of steep slopes. Since the amount of river runoff is the only parameter that is variable in order to determine the power potential, it is vital to estimate the project discharge in ungauged basins accurately that have hydro power potential. Projects discharges of hydro-power plants in ungauged basins have been calculated using conventional methods up to now. This study aims to introduce a statistical model in linear and multi-variate form using the topographical and morphological parameters derived from GIS and hydro-meteorological variables to estimate the specific flow duration curves of potential small hydro-power locations for the selected study areas in Eastern Black Sea Region namely Solakli and Karadere basins. As well as developing an annual regression model using the annual values of hydro-meteorological parameters / seasonal regression model (spring season) has also been developed by including the mean seasonal (spring) air temperature variable instead of snow covered area (SCA) in addition to basin parameters. By studying the spring model, effect of different variables from the annual model were tested and discussed with some recommendations for the future studies.

Tyrolean type water-intake structures are commonly used on mountain rivers to supply water to hydropower stations. The amount of water to be diverted from the main channel is the major concern in these kind of structures and should not be less than the design discharge. In this study a physical model of a Tyrolean type water-intake structure was built at the laboratory and the diverted flow from the main channel through the intake structure having steel racks and perforated plates of different types were measured. The experiments were conducted in two stages. In the first stage the tests were carried out with only steel racks having three different bar openings and slopes, and in the second stage, perforated screens of three different circular openings and screen slopes were used. Applying dimensional analysis to the related parameters of the system the dimensionless terms were defined for the water capture efficiency and discharge coefficient of the system, and their variations with the relevant parameters were plotted. Using these diagrams one can determine the amount of water to be diverted by a Tyrolean weir of known geometry and main channel discharge.

This study is an experimental research to formulate the discharge over sharp-crested rectangular weirs. Firstly, a series of measurements on different weir heights were conducted to find the minimum weir height for which channel bed friction has no effect on discharge capacity. After determining the appropriate weir height, weir width was reduced to collect data on discharge-water head over weir relationship for a variety of different weir openings. Then, the data was analyzed through regression analysis along with utilization of global optimization technique to reach the desired formulation for the discharge. By taking advantage of a newly-introduced &ldquo / weir velocity&rdquo / concept, a simple function was eventually detected for the discharge where no discharge coefficient was involved. The behavior of the weir velocity function obtained in the present study illustrates the transition between the fully contracted and partially contracted weirs. In addition, the proposed weir velocity formulation is simple and robust to calculate the discharge for full range of weir widths.

In this study, transmissivity and storage coefficient of a semi-infinite, confined, homogeneous and isotropic aquifer, where the flow is one-dimensional and linear, are determined using Marquardt algorithm, considering two independent cases: constant drawdown in the adjacent stream / or constant discharge from the aquifer due to pumping at a constant rate. In the first case piezometric head and discharge measurements are utilized. Hydraulic diffusivity, which is the ratio of transmissivity to storage coefficient, is determined from piezometric head measurements / whereas their product is determined from discharge measurements. Then, the two parameters are calculated easily. In the second case piezometric head observations are utilized only and transmissivity and storage coefficient are determined simultaneously. Convergence to true values is very fast for both cases even for poor initial estimates. Three examples, two using synthetic data for both cases and one using actual field data for the second case, are presented. Conventional type-curve matching method is used for comparison of the results. It is observed that the results of Marquardt algorithm are in a reasonable agreement with those of type-curve matching method.