Introduction to the special issue: Understanding and linking the biophysical, socioeconomic and geopolitical effects of dams

Tullos, Desirèe; Tilt, Bryan; Liermann, Catherine Reidy

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.08.018

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Nevertheless, this paper and others in this issue (e.g., Tullos et al, 2009;Wyrick et al, 2009) have highlighted the importance of assessing the impacts of dams from a multidisciplinary perspective. To facilitate such evaluation, we have introduced the IDAM tool, which allows decision-makers to assign objective metrics and subjective valuations to a range of biophysical, socio-economic and geopolitical effects of dam construction and removal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Modeling the costs and benefits of dam construction from a multidisciplinary perspective

Brown

Tullos

Tilt

et al. 2009

Journal of Environmental Management

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112

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Modeling the costs and benefits of dam construction from a multidisciplinary perspective

Brown

Tullos

Tilt

et al. 2009

Journal of Environmental Management

Self Cite

112

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“…Additionally, a map of current land use (2011) (Jarmain et al, 2013) and the land use of 2000 (Van den Berg et al, 2008) were compared with the maps of trends of indicators of hydrologic alteration. Where the occurrence of trends in a flow regime was consistent with the changes in land use, this the temporal evolution of the land-use changes was further investigated.…”

Section: Land-use Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The plans for these developments happen when Swaziland is not yet fully utilising its allocation under the Piggs Peak Agreement and the Interim IncoMaputo Agreement (TPTC, 2010). Experiences of other countries around the world show that dam construction has many, often wide-ranging and long-term, social and ecological impacts that often are negative and that frequently are irreversible, including the social upheaval caused by the resettlement of communities, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, increased sediment trapping, irreversible alteration of flow regimes and the prohibitive cost of decommissioning (see, for an overview, Tullos et al, 2009, andMoore et al, 2010). It is therefore important to explore alternative options fully before deciding on the construction of more large dams.…”

Section: Implications Of These Findings For Water Resource Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of spatial and temporal variability of streamflow in the Incomati River basin

Okello

Masih

Uhlenbrook

et al. 2015

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The Incomati is a semi-arid trans-boundary river basin in southern Africa, with a high variability of streamflow and competing water demands from irrigated agriculture, energy, forestry and industries. These sectors compete with environmental flows and basic human water needs, resulting in a "stressed" water resource system. The impacts of these demands, relative to the natural flow regime, appear significant. However, despite being a relatively well-gauged basin in South Africa, the natural flow regime and its spatial and temporal variability are poorly understood and remain poorly described, resulting in a limited knowledge base for water resource planning and management decisions. Thus, there is an opportunity to improve water management, if it can be underpinned by a better scientific understanding of the drivers of streamflow availability and variability in the catchment.In this study, long-term rainfall and streamflow records were analysed. Statistical analysis, using annual anomalies, was conducted on 20 rainfall stations, for the period 1950-2011. The Spearman test was used to identify trends in the records on annual and monthly timescales. The variability of rainfall across the basin was confirmed to be high, both intraand inter-annually. The statistical analysis of rainfall data revealed no significant trend of increase or decrease. Observed flow data from 33 gauges were screened and analysed, using the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) approach. Temporal variability was high, with the coefficient of variation of annual flows in the range of 1 to 3.6. Significant declining trends in October flows, and low flow indicators, were also identified at most gauging stations of the Komati and Crocodile sub-catchments; however, no trends were evident in the other parameters, including high flows. The trends were mapped using GIS and were compared with historical and current land use. These results suggest that land use and flow regulation are larger drivers of temporal changes in streamflow than climatic forces. Indeed, over the past 40 years, the areas under commercial forestry and irrigated agriculture have increased over 4 times.

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“…We recognize that each HP project, large or small, is characterized by specific peculiarities that cannot be generalized. Nevertheless, due to long traditions in HP construction, on a general level, the financial calculus as well as the ecological, environmental and social impacts of large HP projects are well known and documented [35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

Section: The Powershed Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yunnan’s Fast-Paced Large Hydropower Development: A Powershed-Based Approach to Critically Assessing Generation and Consumption Paradigms

Hennig

Wang

Magee

et al. 2016

Water

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Southwest China's Yunnan province is evolving into one of the world's largest hydro-power-producing regions. It already rivals the world's largest hydro-producing nations. However, five of Yunnan's six basins are international and therefore its hydropower development is of great academic and geopolitical interest. While the implementation of large projects on Yunnan's three large rivers (Jinsha, Mekong and Nu) is relatively well studied, hydropower development outside these three main streams is hardly known. Here, we identified 128 large hydropower projects (≥50 MW) having a capacity of 16.5 GW, along with another 16.4 GW of other types of power generation, neither of which has been discussed in the academic literature yet. The paper utilizes a powershed approach to study the rapid hydropower development underway in Yunnan, both in its implication and challenges (at basin and administrative level) as well as in its trade-offs within the broader electricity context. Yunnan's power generation and consumption patterns are characterized by diverging interests of local/provincial usage and export utilization. Within the province, the largest (hydro-) power users are energy/electricity intensive industries, which themselves have strong impacts on land use changes. Yunnan is also evolving as a major power exporter, already in 2013 exporting about one-third of its generated electricity mainly to Guangdong's Pearl River Delta. We see a need for a critical revision of those existing generation and consumption paradigms, which includes a rethinking of major development modes, both in terms of future hydropower generation and utilization projects as well as export obligations.

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Introduction to the special issue: Understanding and linking the biophysical, socioeconomic and geopolitical effects of dams

Cited by 29 publications

References 22 publications

Modeling the costs and benefits of dam construction from a multidisciplinary perspective

Modeling the costs and benefits of dam construction from a multidisciplinary perspective

Drivers of spatial and temporal variability of streamflow in the Incomati River basin

Yunnan’s Fast-Paced Large Hydropower Development: A Powershed-Based Approach to Critically Assessing Generation and Consumption Paradigms

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