This paper proposes strategic changes to flow regimes in fresh water dams for adaptation to the impacts of climate change. The authors discuss how modifying dam operations, ‘dam reoperation’, can assist with adaptation to climate change and help restore ecosystems. The main operating purpose of a dam (e.g. flood management, hydropower or water supply) will influence dam reoperation strategies. Reoperation may require integration across sectors or involve multiple dams, enhancing benefits such as water supply or hydropower while simultaneously achieving ecosystem restoration. Through different case studies, the importance of incorporating floodplains in flood management for increasing dam storage capacity, and coordinating multiple dam operations and intra-basin legislations for the maintenance of water flows under a climate change scenario are highlighted. The paper demonstrates the way in which the management of floodplains and wetland ecosystems, along with coordinated operations and legislations at different administrative levels, can be integrated to strategise dam flows in order to maintain water supply under changing climatic conditions. The paper recommends four distinct strategies for adaptation, related to:

groundwater aquifer storage and recovery
inter-dam transfers
alternate delivery arrangements for landholders with riparian rights
coinciding water release from dams with the flows of unregulated tributaries

Instead of additional structural interventions, the paper identifies certain strategies for increasing the functional diversity of existing dam infrastructure.