Balancing Hydropower Development and Ecological Impacts in the Mekong: Tradeoffs for Sambor Mega Dam

Wild, Thomas; Reed, Patrick M.; Loucks, Daniel P.; Mallen‐Cooper, Martin; Jensen, Erland D.

doi:10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0001036

Cited by 68 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Studying designs of mainstem dams still included in the LMSP 1 portfolio could identify if there are options for lower impact redesigns of these dams. In turn, studies on the scale of single dams (25) would benefit from an integration in a basin-scale strategic vision, e.g., to identify alternatives to dams whose sites are inherently problematic or for which a redesign is economically or technically not feasible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning dam portfolios for low sediment trapping shows limits for sustainable hydropower in the Mekong

et al. 2019

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The transboundary Mekong Basin has been dubbed the “Battery of Southeast Asia” for its large hydropower potential. Development of hydropower dams in the six riparian countries proceeds without strategic analyses of dam impacts, e.g., reduced sediment delivery to the lower Mekong. This will impact some of the world’s largest freshwater fisheries and endangers the resilience of the delta, which supports 17 million livelihoods, against rising sea levels. To highlight alternatives, we contribute an optimization-based framework for strategic sequencing of dam development. We quantify lost opportunities from past development and identify remaining opportunities for better tradeoffs between sediment and hydropower. We find that limited opportunities remain for less impactful hydropower in the lower basin, where most development is currently planned, while better trade-offs could be reached with dams in the upper Mekong in China. Our results offer a strategic vision for hydropower in the Mekong, introduce a globally applicable framework to optimize dam sequences in space and time, and highlight the importance of strategic planning on multiple scales to minimize hydropower impacts on rivers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning dam portfolios for low sediment trapping shows limits for sustainable hydropower in the Mekong

et al. 2019

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“…Our Mekong WEF nexus case study is a WEF situation in Kratie Province, Cambodia (Liu et al, ). Local communities in this region will be impacted by two major hydropower projects in Cambodia: Stung Treng dam in Stung Treng Province, a proposed mainstem (central river channel) gravity dam being built for energy export to Thailand; and Sambor dam in Kratie Province, the largest proposed dam in the entire river basin (Wild et al, ; Wu et al, ). Kratie and Stung Treng Provinces are also experiencing other forms of development that impact the agricultural and fishing activities that currently support local populations' subsistence and livelihoods in different ways.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

et al. 2019

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Participatory modeling is a potentially high-impact approach for catalyzing fundamental sustainability transformations. We test if participation in a group system dynamics modeling exercise increases participants' agency through a novel method to evaluate potential behavioral change using expectation measures. A water-energy-food nexus-a functionally interdependent but underconceptualized system with low consensus and high scientific uncertainty-was mapped, and its evolution simulated by 46 participants in three interventions in a region undergoing hydropower infrastructure development in Northeastern Cambodia. Participants' system-related expectations were measured before and after the interventions. Our results suggest that participants became significantly more optimistic about their individual agency to increase agricultural and fishing income and, interestingly, less likely to participate in local government development planning procedures. Findings also reveal how some uncertainties for multiple variables were reduced within and across the groups. Such converging expectations suggest that participatory modeling could contribute to making collective solutions and institutionalized agreements more likely. This research contributes to innovation in sustainability because it unpacks some underlying mechanics of how participatory processes can lead to new adaptive capacities, shared perspectives, and collective actions. Plain Language SummaryOur research contributes to understanding actionable knowledge for sustainability using a before-after intervention with fishing and farming community representatives in a situation of conflicting water, energy, food, and livelihoods priorities in rural Cambodia. We explain why reducing uncertainty and building consensus on action through participatory research could potentially catalyze new behavior that promotes sustainability and test how this happens in our intervention. The result is a new and much needed evaluation framework and method for behavioral change outcomes in sustainability interventions.

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“…To return to our simple tank example, any model for finding the dimensions of a tank is not going to suggest alternatives that might negate the need for that tank. Similarly, if we are modeling a proposed reservoir, say on the Mekong or Nile Rivers, in addition to learning how fast it may fill with sediment under different hydropower production and sediment management policies, would it not be nice if our model could suggest other sites, other designs and other options, such as the use of solar panels for generating power, that might be preferable to what has been modeled, and show the appropriate impacts of those panels regarding costs, power production and sediment and fish passage [49].…”

Section: From Analysis To Innovation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

From Analyses to Implementation and Innovation

Loucks

2020

Water

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Reviews of the water resource systems planning and management literature show considerable interest in methodological issues and less so in implementation experiences. This paper offers some thoughts on the use of our analysis tools in the political environment where water management decisions are typically made. This paper also addresses the challenge of going beyond analysis and synthesis to innovation. How can we extend our modeling methods so as to help ourselves become more creative in the identification of potentially improved infrastructure design and/or operating policies, and even of institutional changes, that we have otherwise not considered or thought of?

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Balancing Hydropower Development and Ecological Impacts in the Mekong: Tradeoffs for Sambor Mega Dam

Cited by 68 publications

References 54 publications

Planning dam portfolios for low sediment trapping shows limits for sustainable hydropower in the Mekong

Planning dam portfolios for low sediment trapping shows limits for sustainable hydropower in the Mekong

Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

From Analyses to Implementation and Innovation

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