AUGUST 2021

Q&A With HBET Licensee Elena-Marie Klopries

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We asked Elena-Maria Klopries, senior researcher at RWTH Aachen University’s Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, to share her experience in licensing the Hydropower Biological Evaluation Toolset (HBET). 

What kind of work do you do related to fish passage and/or hydropower? 

Klopries: At the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at RWTH Aachen University, we have been doing work on the topics of hydropower and fish protection for over 20 years. This includes analytical analyses, fish behavioral studies in laboratory flumes, computational fluid dynamics of turbines and fish ways, as well as field studies with Sensor Fish to meausure the physical stressors during turbine passage. As a research institute at a university, we have several partners in industry and research we cooperate with. 

Why was the institute interested in using the Hydropower Biological Evaluation Toolset (HBET)?  

Klopries: Using Sensor Fish in a field study means generating a lot of datasets with tens of thousands of data points. Although it is possible to post-process this data independently and to your own needs and ideas, HBET gives you a very good starting point for your analysis. It is a well-proven tool to get insight into your data visually, as well as by creating key parameters for your data interpretation and statistical analysis.  

How has the institute used HBET? 

Klopries: We used HBET to analyze and interpret Sensor Fish data we collected at a hydropower plant in Germany and to combine the results from the biological evaluation tool with data from live fish tests at the same plant. We hope to promote the use of autonomous sensors for biological turbine evaluation in future monitoring projects with these results. 

How have you worked with the HydroPASSAGE team to understand how to use and apply HBET? 

Klopries: I have known some of the HydroPASSAGE team for a couple of years and got the information that they are offering a free workshop on HBET and Sensor Fish. The team was quick, friendly, and flexible in arranging a prompt date for the workshop. All questions about the trial license and the content of the workshop were clarified in advance. I received an individualized two-day workshop from the team, in which I could get to know all aspects of HBET, and we clarified my individual questions point by point. The team took an extraordinary amount of time to explain everything to me in detail and to make sure that I understood everything and could use HBET in a meaningful way in the future. I am very grateful for this kind of support and consider myself well prepared for future use of HBET and hydropower evaluation.

Robert (Bob) Mueller's Role in Biological Response for HydroPASSAGE

Robert (Bob) Mueller has been working for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for almost 30 years. For the last two decades of his career, Bob has been researching the interactions between fish and hydropower. He contributes to a variety of PNNL fish passage evaluations, using technologies such as acoustic imaging and optical camera systems and acoustic and radio telemetry. 

As a research scientist and fish biologist, Bob brings extensive experience to the HydroPASSAGE technical team. His technical expertise is in biological response, specifically the assessment of fish injury and behavior impacts resulting from shear, strike, and turbulent forces. As part of the HydroPASSAGE project, Bob operates and oversees all experiments conducted in PNNL’s Shear Stress Facility located at the Aquatic Research Laboratory. 

Bob is also key to the deployment of Sensor Fish, the autonomous device that uses multiple sensors to measure the physical stressors fish experience when passing through or around dams. Sensor Fish and HBET have been used by hydropower owners/operators, researchers, and environmental consultants to conduct studies on hydraulic structures including turbines, spillways, weirs, and fish passage systems in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Laos, and the United States. Sensor Fish provide valuable data, but their use also results in saved time, cost, and lower ecological impacts than conducting fish tagging studies to measure survival through hydropower structures.  

“Sensor Fish studies related to shear and strike are informing us about negative impacts to fish during turbine entrainment,” Mueller said. “By identifying where these stressors exist and the severity, the hydropower industry can modify the design of facilities or operating conditions to help mitigate and improve fish passage.” 

The HydroPASSAGE project is a research and development collaboration between engineers and biologists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest and Oak Ridge National Laboratories that is finding solutions to improve downstream fish passage conditions through turbines and other hydropower structures. Learn more at hydropassage.org.