Understanding Public Views on a Dam Construction Boom: the Role of Values

Abstract

Large numbers of dams for hydroelectric power production are currently planned or under construction in many areas around the world. While positive and negative social and environmental impacts of dams are increasingly well understood, little is known about attitudes of the general public towards dams, even though benefits to wider society are often cited to legitimise their construction. In Brazil's Upper Paraguay River Basin, more than 100 mostly small-scale hydropower dams are planned or under construction in what can be considered a regional dam construction boom. Here we analyse public preferences for strategies to manage dam impacts in the area by investigating the value base that underpins such preferences, drawing on the recently proposed Value Landscapes Approach as our theoretical framework and data from a large representative household survey (N = 1067). We find that contrasting attitudes towards dams, expressed in preferences for economically or ecologically oriented water policies are informed by opposing underlying value landscapes, that is, groups of closely related fundamental, governance-related, and assigned (water) values. While such tensions between opposing values can never be fully eliminated, our research nevertheless gives insights to policy-makers seeking to minimise value conflict and to improve the political legitimacy of public decision-making on dam construction. Moreover, we find that a majority of members of the general public would prefer concentrating dam construction on some rivers while keeping others free-flowing, with direct implications for ecosystems and inland fisheries. This finding may guide policy-makers wishing to develop publicly supported water resources management strategies.

River Connectivity is Crucial for Safeguarding Biodiversity but May be Socially Overlooked. Insights From Spanish University Students

“…Interestingly, although there are many public views opposed to new damming (e.g. Kirchherr et al, 2016;Schulz et al, 2019), there are also voices against dam demolition even when they are obsolete (Lejon et al, 2009), when they have cultural and historical values. Our results would suggest that spending public money to recover connectivity should be better accepted if the consequences of river fragmentation were better explained to the population.…”

“…The value that people give to ecosystem services may depend on their educational background, and students of educational sciences have generally a high environmental sensitivity (Tuncer et al, 2009;Kukkonen et al, 2018). Since ecologically oriented people prefer connected rivers (Schulz et al, 2019), we expected that students of educational sciences give more value to all ecosystem services, in general, than students of other disciplines (Hypothesis 4).…”

“…To incorporate connectivity restoration in conservation programs, it is crucial to improve societal awareness about the importance of maintaining continuous rivers (Couvet et al, 2008). However, so far studies have been focused on the public acceptance of new dams and other river infrastructures in relation with energy and water supply (Cohen et al, 2014;Boyé and De Vivo, 2016;Kellner, 2019;Schulz et al, 2019), rather than on the consideration of connectivity. Reservoirs provide hydroelectric power, reducing the dependence from fossil oils, and provide water supply and recreation that are important services for the population and increase their public acceptance (Arabatzis and Myronidis, 2011).…”

“…Reservoirs provide hydroelectric power, reducing the dependence from fossil oils, and provide water supply and recreation that are important services for the population and increase their public acceptance (Arabatzis and Myronidis, 2011). Contrasting attitudes toward dams can be briefly described as economically (favorable to dams) or ecologically (opposed to dams) oriented views of water policies (Schulz et al, 2019). These authors found that those who hold more ecological and cultural values prefer to keep some rivers free of dams.…”

Hydropower benefit-sharing and resettlement: A conceptual review

“…Project-affected people are those displaced by dam reservoirs, as well as those who see their livelihoods affected as a result of changed hydrological and ecological dynamics, which may affect fishing or farming in riparian areas [18,19]. Making project-affected people better off is all the more important since new dams are typically justified by citing their contribution to economic development, which is intended to benefit wider society [20,21]. Hydropower dams in particular may generate significant financial revenues to the private or public entities that operate them, while potentially curtailing development opportunities for local people.…”