The performance of hydraulic structures is very dependent on geomorphological and hydrological conditions. The intervention to improve or maintain sustainable flow conditions requires monitoring, interpretation and setup of reliable models to simulate the system performance in future under varying conditions. Therefor physical model tests, numerical simulations and in situ measurements - carefully interpreted – are applied, their insufficiencies are to be identified and the need of scientific research to improve their capabilities need to be addressed.

Especially time dependent inflow and retention are of research interest to provide information on flood forecast and inundation studies.

For the efficient energy production with hydro power plants - to immediately provide and store electric energy – large reservoir volumes are the valuable asset. Hydro power plants with large retention structures – due to its inherent risk potential - need to be designed, constructed, operated and maintained very carefully. Especially for ever-increasing challenging site conditions, retention structures deserves high attention for robust performance during construction, impounding and changing operation conditions. During severe loading conditions – e.g. abutment irregularities or the safety evaluation earthquake – appropriate nonlinear numerical models provide valuable results to assess the overall system performance. Fluid and abutment structure interaction plays a significant role for detailed nonlinear analyses.