One negative side effect of hydropower is that fish can be killed and injured in the power plants. The fish mortality of the turbines and screens varies, among other things, with the type and size of the turbine and the pressure head. In particular, the mortality depends on the type and size of the fish. The protection of fish has become a particularly important issue in the hydropower business. Without functioning fish protection systems, the acceptance of hydropower by large sections of the modern society is highly endangered.

Method
The project aims at developing a method for finding designs for intake structures and intake areas that maximize the fi sh bypass effi ciency. The method used is a numerical model to resolve the hydraulic flow field in the intake area and couple this with telemetric data of fi sh movements. The movement of the fish is strongly influenced by the hydraulics, and changing the flow pattern by excavation and/or physical barriers might be an economic and practical alternative to installing finer trash racks. A good numerical model makes it possible to
assess different designs in the virtual model before implementing the measures in the real world.