Understanding the Hydropower and Potential Climate Change Impact on the Himalayan River Regimes—A Study of Local Perceptions and Responses from Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The Himalayas have become synonymous with the hydropower developments for larger electricity demands of India’s energy sector. In the Himachal Himalayas though, there are only three large storage dams with more than 1000 megawatts (hereafter MW) capacity that have very serious environmental issues. However, hundreds of small runoff-river hydropower plants across the Himachal Himalayas are a serious threat to the river regimes and Himalayan biota. There are 965 identified hydropower projects (hereafter HPPs) having a potential capacity of 27,436 MW in the Himachal Pradesh as of December 2019 as per the Directorate of Energy of the state. Out of the 965 identified, 216 are commissioned, including less than 5 MW plants, with an installed capacity of 10,596 MW, and were operational by December 2019. Only 58 projects are under construction among the identified with an installed capacity of 2351 MW, 640 projects are in various stages of clearance and investigation with an installed capacity 9260 MW, 30 projects are to be allotted with 1304 MW installed capacity, and merely four projects are disputed/canceled with installed capacity of 50.50 MW. The large number of HPPs are sanctioned without proper consideration of negative environmental and geohazard impacts on the Himalayan terrestrial biota. In this work, our focus was on the hydropower and climate change impact on the Himalayan river regimes of the Chenab, the Ravi, the Beas, the Satluj, and the Yamuna river basins. We analyzed basin-wise rainfall, temperature, and soil moisture data from 1955 to 2019 to see the trend by applying the Mann–Kendall test, the linear regression model, and Sen’s slope test. A basin-wise hazard zonation map has been drawn to assess the disaster vulnerability, and 12 hydropower sites have been covered through the primary survey for first-hand information of local perceptions and responses owing to hydropower plants.

Understanding flash flooding in the Himalayan Region: a case study

“…This thick cloud cover resulted in considerable precipitable water vapour from the 17th to 19th of October, as shown in Fig. 8 82 , 83 . These atmospheric parameters resulted in favorable conditions for extreme with multiple rainfall episodes over the study area from 17 to 19th October 2021,finally, the extreme rainfall episodes attributed to flash flooding over the Nainital, Uttarakhand.…”

Transboundary River Water Availability to Ravi Riverfront under Changing Climate: A Step towards Sustainable Development

“…Bari Doab, Ravi River India Arsenic presence in groundwater and associated health problems [25] Ravi Rive, Pakistan Microplastic pollution in Ravi River, Lahore [26] Thein Dam Project, India Thein Dam resettlement in India [27] Ravi River, Pakistan Floating wetlands are a treatment for polluting river water [28,29] Ravi River, Pakistan Accumulation of heavy metal contamination from Ravi Syphon to Balloki Barrage [30] Sutlej and Ravi River, Pakistan Water quality of Ravi and Sutlej River [31] Ravi River Basin, India Landslide hazard assessment in Chamba Region, Himalaya [32] Ravi River, Pakistan Pollution control concentration on enhancing the water quality of rivers [33] Ravi catchment, India Landslide hazard mapping in Himachal Pradesh, India [34] Ravi River, Lahore-Pakistan Wastewater quality of four drains entering the Ravi River [35] Glacierized area of Ravi Basin, India Glacier inventory in Ravi basin, western Himalaya [36] Thein Dam, Ravi River, India Water quality of the Thein Dam wetlands, India [37] Ravi syphon to Balloki, Pakistan presence and potent source of pesticides and specific pesticide-bearing effluent release points on the Ravi River, [38] Ravi River, Pakistan Metals concentration at Balloki Barrage [39] Ravi River, Lahore-Pakistan Urban effluents impact on mineral concentrations [40] Ravi River, Pakistan Arsenic presence in the Ravi River [41] Ravi River, India Snow cover distribution in central and western Himalayas [42] Ravi River, Pakistan Dissolved oxygen modeling in the Ravi River [43] Ravi River, Pakistan Heavy metal contamination in the Ravi River [44,45] Ravi Catchment, India Snow distribution in the western Himalayas [46] Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej Variations in streamflow patterns in Northwestern Himalaya [47] In addition, Sahu et al [48] investigated the hydropower potential of Himalayan rivers in India and their climate implications. The frontal changes in the Manimahesh and Tal Glaciers located at the source reach of the Ravi River were investigated by Chand and Sharma [49].…”

Spatiotemporal Changes of Forest Cover and Land Surface Temperature Using Geo-Spatial Techniques in Talra Wildlife Sanctuary, Shimla, North-Western Himalaya

“…As a result, the amount of forest cover is declining signi cantly and quickly. Forest degradation causes numerous ecological, social, and economic issues, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, climate change, and an increase in surface temperature from the local environment to the global (Roy et al, 2002;Sahu et al, 2020;Saini et al, 2021).…”