As a result of peak-load electricity production in Austria, 75 river sections with a total length of 811 km show artificial water level fluctuations. Especially high ramping rates are known to increase the risk of stranding for larval and juvenile fish in dewatering areas. An alteration of the operational mode in terms of decelerating the starting-up and turning-off of turbines, is taken into account as one possible mitigation measure, concerning the decrease of ramping rates in hydropeaked rivers. In order to analyse this mitigation measure, one-dimensional unsteady modelling at four hydropeaked rivers was applied to determine the longitudinal alteration in rate of water-level change and rate of wetted width change (lateral ramping rate). Therefore, artificial scenarios for hydrodynamic modelling were generated by superimposing median baseflow of each season with the specific storage powerplant’s design discharge. Furthermore, all designed scenarios differentiate in water release and intake rates of turbines. Independent from baseflow, each modelled scenario showed a strong longitudinal decrease in vertical ramping rates within the first 3-5 kilometres downstream of the turbine outlet. However, with increasing distance, differences between modelled scenarios decreased. Model accuracy was tested by using recorded hydrographs as hydrological input data and comparing the model outputs with corresponding hydrographs recorded at downstream gauging stations. Observed median model errors did not exceed 0.21 cm min^-1. The results of this study reveal at which distance from a turbine outlet, an improvement of the morphological conditions can be considered as effective, considering critical ramping rates for larval and juvenile fish.