Sustainable hydropower in the 21st century

Moran, Emílio F.; López, María Claudia; Moore, Nathan; Müller, Norbert; Hyndman, D. W.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1809426115

Cited by 481 publications

(342 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…In the SDG framework, this value is monitored with indicator 6.4.2 [57]. When environmental flows are not met any more, this leads to serious disruptions in important ecosystem services [28,57,58].…”

Section: Blue and Green Water Scarcitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The consumptive water footprint of the European Union energy sector

Vanham

Medarac

Schyns

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Energy security for the EU is a priority of the European Commission. Although both blue and green water resources are increasingly scarce, the EU currently does not explicitly account for water resource use in its energy related policies. Here we quantify the freshwater resources required to produce the different energy sources in the EU, by means of the water footprint (WF) concept. We conduct the most geographically detailed consumptive WF assessment for the EU to date, based on the newest spatial databases of energy sources. We calculate that fossil fuels and nuclear energy are moderate water users (136-627 m 3 /terajoules (m 3 TJ -1 )). Of the renewable energy sources, wood, reservoir hydropower and first generation biofuels require large water amounts (9114-137 624 m 3 TJ -1 ). The most water efficient are solar, wind, geothermal and run-of-river hydropower (1-117 m 3 TJ -1 ). For the EU territory for the year 2015, our geographically detailed assessment results in a WF of energy production from domestic water resources of 198 km 3 , or 1068 litres per person per day. The WF of energy consumption is larger as the EU is to a high level dependent on imports for its energy supply, amounting to 242 km 3 per year, or 1301 litres per person per day. The WF of energy production within the 281 EU statistical NUTS-2 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) regions shows spatially heterogeneous values. Different energy sources produced and consumed in the EU contribute to and are produced under average annual and monthly blue water stress and green water scarcity. The amount of production under WS is especially high during summer months. Imported energy sources are also partly produced under WS, revealing risks to EU energy security due to externalisation. For the EU, to decarbonise and increase the share of renewables of its energy supply, it needs to formulate policies that take the water use of energy sources into account. In doing so, the spatial and temporal characteristics of water use and water stress should particularly be considered.

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Section: Blue and Green Water Scarcitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A vast body of literature on the interactions between the water and energy systems exists, dealing with water quantity, water quality and/or climate change, among others [25][26][27][28]. The water footprint (WF) of energy has been analysed for specific world regions [19,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The consumptive water footprint of the European Union energy sector

Vanham

Medarac

Schyns

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…We encourage that dams are not sited in high biodiversity areas, areas with threatened or endemic species, or migratory corridors (Thieme et al, 2007;Winemiller et al, 2016). Thorough environmental impact assessments and social impact assessments should be conducted in advance of dam construction by independent parties (Moran, Lopez, Moore, Müller, & Hyndman, 2018). Such assessments should have the capacity to stop dam construction if deemed necessary (Égré & Senécal, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the distribution of freshwater fish diversity using a multispecies habitat suitability model to assess impacts of proposed dam development in Gabon, Africa

Cutler

Olivos

Sidlauskas

et al. 2019

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Data scarcity impedes a comprehensive impact assessment of the 38 dams currently proposed within the highly biodiverse central African nation of Gabon.Here, we present a multiple-species MaxEnt distribution modeling approach to assess species richness for freshwater fishes at the landscape level and demonstrate its utility in identifying proposed dam sites in Gabon that fall in highly diverse areas. We modeled habitat suitability for 202 of Gabon's fresh and brackish water fish species based on georeferenced presence data from museum specimens and a set of ecologically meaningful environmental conditions. We removed poor performing species from the model and compiled the distributions of 114 well-performing species to generate a new metric, the species pseudorichness index (pR), defined as the cumulative number of species that are highly suited to the habitat in a given segment of river. We used pR as a proxy for true species richness and use this metric to evaluate the distribution of freshwater fish diversity relative to the proposed dam development in Gabon. We found that more than 80% of the proposed dams in Gabon overlap with areas of high pR, implying that planned hydroelectric development in Gabon may disproportionately affect high diversity areas. These dams deserve more focused baseline assessments and conservation action. This approach provides a rapid way to initiate a landscape-scale assessment of freshwater fish diversity to inform conservation decisions in areas that are species rich, but data poor.

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“…Some of these dams are used for hydropower, which is the largest contributor to global renewable electricity generation, supplying 16.4% of the world's electricity from all sources [7]. During the process of hydropower project development, insufficient attention is paid to impacts on the environment (such as the disruption of the natural flow regime, fragmentation of the single river ecosystem, suppression of migration paths and the changing habitats of species, greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs, changes in sediment flow and channel processes, changes in the microclimate, transformation of biological and chemical properties of the water body) and measures to minimize these [8].…”

Section: Freshwater Biodiversity and Damsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freshwater Ecosystems versus Hydropower Development: Environmental Assessments and Conservation Measures in the Transboundary Amur River Basin

Simonov

Nikitina²,

Егидарев

2019

Water

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Hydropower development causes a multitude of negative effects on freshwater ecosystems, and to prevent and minimize possible damage, environmental impact assessments must be conducted and optimal management scenarios designed. This paper examines the impacts of both existing and proposed hydropower development on the transboundary Amur River basin shared by Russia, China, and Mongolia, including the effectiveness of different tools and measures to minimize damage. It demonstrates that the application of various assessment and conservation tools at the proper time and in the proper sequence is the key factor in mitigating and minimizing the environmental impacts of dams. The tools considered include basin-wide assessments of hydropower impacts, the creation of protected areas on rivers threatened by dam construction, and environmental flows. The results of this work show how the initial avoidance and mitigation of hydropower impacts at early planning stages are more productive than the application of any measures during and after dam construction, that the assessment of hydropower impacts must be performed at a basin level rather than be limited to a project implementation site, and that the full spectrum of possible development scenarios should be considered. In addition, this project demonstrates that stakeholder analysis and robust public engagement are as crucial for the success of environmental assessments as scientific research is for the protection of river basins.

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Sustainable hydropower in the 21st century

Cited by 481 publications

References 89 publications

The consumptive water footprint of the European Union energy sector

The consumptive water footprint of the European Union energy sector

Evaluating the distribution of freshwater fish diversity using a multispecies habitat suitability model to assess impacts of proposed dam development in Gabon, Africa

Freshwater Ecosystems versus Hydropower Development: Environmental Assessments and Conservation Measures in the Transboundary Amur River Basin

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