Fishways have been studied at the University of Oulu since the early 1980’s in close co-operation with biologists and engineers. Studies have been conducted under the leadership of Professor Jussi Hooli of the Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering Laboratory, which was previously a part of the Department of Civil Engineering. In August 1998 the laboratory became a part of the Department of Process and Environmental Engineering, and at the same time its name was changed to the Water Resources and Environmental Engineering Laboratory. Until 1996, experimental facilities of the laboratory were located in an old-fashioned, inappropriate and impractical building. Then, in 1996 a new experimental hall was taken into use and the possibilities for hydraulic studies improved considerably. Fishway studies at the University of Oulu have arisen from practical problems, and most of the model studies were conducted for existing or designed structures.
The main aim of this study was to create a common dimensionless scaling equation for fishway structures and establish a new design procedure. In addition, flow patterns below different fishway types were studied and weir flows over a chain of weirs and a single weir were considered. The applicability of the results is discussed.