of operational scenarios and changes in water availability Elisabetta Garofalo*, Alessia Gargiulo*, Jason Antenucci ** 7th Symposium on Ecohydraulics and the "8th Conference on Hydroinformatics Conception, Chile, 12-16 Gennaio 2009 * CESI RICERCA S.P.A., **CENTRE FOR WATER RESEARCH, THE UNIVERSITY WESTERN AUSTRALIA Environmental policy in Europe is strongly focused on enhancing the use of renewable energy sources and at the same time on the protection of natural resources. The implementation of these policies may however lead to strong conflicts, therefore a major challenge for Europe in the next years will be the harmonization of actions for environmental and energetic goals into a coordinated strategy. As far as water resources concern, the European objectives for aquatic ecosystems indicated in the Water Frame Directive, as well the priority given to the multiple use of water resources, and the expected water scarcity arise some doubts about the possibility even to maintain the actual hydroelectric production. In the frame of the research financed by the Research Fund for the Italian Electric System, studies are being carried out to provide solutions for the management of hydropower schemes which can cope with concurrent and often conflicting factors, such as quality of impounded water, minimum flows, flood protection, storage loss due to sedimentation. One of the case studies, the hydroelectric reservoir at the Fiastra Dam (Italy) has been focused on a 4 years experimentation of an integrated system developed by CWR which rely on real time monitoring coupled with hydrodynamic and water quality mathematical codes. The system has been experimented with the purpose of investigating possible operational alternatives for improving the overall quality of the reservoir and cope with the environmental normative whilst maintaining the energy production level. The effects of changes in water availability due to climate changes have also been investigated.