Journal Reference :. Emilio F. Sustainable hydropower in the 21st century. Cookies on Environmental Impact Like most websites we use cookies. Close Find out more. Log out Manage access. Log out. Search Environmental Impact Smart searches. Enter keyword or phrase. Search within topic Limit to selected topics. Limit to selected content types. Environmental Impact smart searches are based on commonly researched topics, and your own requests Request a search. New analysis suggests that social and environmental costs are underestimated Concerns about climate change and the carbon impact of using fossil fuels for energy production have led to a renewed impetus towards the use of renewable energy.
Journal Reference : Emilio F. Further reading Chen, G. Article details. The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon under construction. The dam-building rush, especially in the Amazon, impedes tropical fish migration and vastly expands deforestation because of the construction of new roads. Brazil, for example, gets two-thirds of its electricity from hydropower, and new dams are being proposed in its diverse tropical rainforests.
In Southeast Asia, the Mekong River Basin already has dams, and there are plans for construction of nearly more, including dams on the river mainstem, Winemiller said. Fishery losses in the wake of new dam construction poses a food security challenge in Thailand, where 99 new dams planned for the Mun River Basin would require up to a 63 percent expansion of agricultural land, which leads to further deforestation, the study says.
The study adds that economic projections often exclude or underestimate the costs of environmental improvement following the construction of major dams. Scientists unaffiliated with the study say it illustrates the possibly outsized impact that dam building in the tropics has on biodiversity, and possibly the climate. This study alerts us to the large-scale impact of dams in tropical forests, and if these projected dams are built, we will have a worse scenario for climate change than we would expect.
Such a comparison could also be done within the field of life cycle assessment. However, for wind power, a comparative set of explicit life impact assessment does not exist The results of this study contribute to the understanding of biodiversity trade-offs associated with hydropower at an economy-wide and regional or global scale.
This knowledge is important to understand the ability of hydropower to help our societies achieve both climate and biodiversity related SGDs simultaneously.
Therefore, our results provide valuable information for understanding the role of hydropower in a future sustainable world, which is useful for developing strategies at the macro-level. We adopted the method from Dorber et al. The terrestrial biodiversity damage of possible future land occupation of reservoir x can be quantified with a characterization factor, denoting the PDF per m 2 future land occupation.
We used the global taxon aggregated CFs, from Dorber et al. The CFs are specific for each terrestrial ecoregion j and differentiate between the inundation of natural habitat, managed forest, agricultural area, pasture or urban area. The land use types i explain the land use types used in Eq. To convert regional PDFs indicating a fraction of potential regional species extirpations into global PDFs indicating a fraction of potential global species extinctions , the method from Dorber et al.
The GEP indicates the likelihood that species of a taxonomic group get extinct globally if they become extirpated in region j.
The GEPs range from 0 to 1, and are based on local species range sizes, species threat levels, and species richness We used the center coordinates of each reservoir from Gernaat et al. We followed Dorber et al.
To quantify the potential aquatic biodiversity damage of water consumption from reservoir x we used the Species-discharge relationship SDR The SDR relates river discharge to species richness and is the state of the art concept within the life cycle impact assessment framework for the derivation of reservoir x specific water consumption CFs 72 , R is the number of fish species predicted by the SDR. GEP j,g is the global extinction probability for freshwater groups of the freshwater ecoregion j 89 in which the hydropower reservoir is located.
This CF assumes that one unit change in water consumption e. For hydropower reservoirs located between 42 degree north and south we used the SDR power function from Hanafiah et al. We obtained Q x from Gernaat et al. For GEP j,g we used the categorical extinction probability for freshwater groups from Kuipers et al. We calculated the average yearly CH 4 emissions over the reservoirs life span LS. As before, we assumed that the future reservoir will be a circle around the center coordinates 5 and obtained TMX from the WorldClim Version 2 This dataset provides the maximum temperature between and at a 30 s resolution.
The reported life span of hydropower reservoirs lies between 50— years 67 , 68 , We used 75 year as LS, as it lies in the middle of the reported lifespan. ATE was calculated with the reservoir surface area and the electricity production data from Gernaat et al. To convert methane emission values into CO 2 equivalent CO 2 eq. For 16 possible future hydropower reservoirs no combined potential terrestrial biodiversity could be calculated, due to missing max temperature values for the methane emission calculation.
For 24 possible future hydropower reservoirs no total potential freshwater biodiversity impact could be calculated, due to missing max temperature values 15 reservoirs and due to missing evaporation values 14 reservoirs. This is necessary, because not only the potential biodiversity impact per kwh varies but also the energy production at each reservoir. Multiplying the total potential terrestrial or aquatic impact per kWh with the yearly electricity production of each hydropower reservoir, gives the potential yearly biodiversity impact per reservoir.
The water consumption values, methane emissions values, and related biodiversity impacts for each possible future hydropower reservoir are presented in the Supplementary Information. Additional data that support the findings of this work are available from the authors upon reasonable request. Bogdanov, D. Radical transformation pathway towards sustainable electricity via evolutionary steps. Green Energy Choices: The benefits, risks and trade-offs of low-carbon technologies for electricity production.
Report of the International Resource Panel United Nations. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global Warming of 1. Gernaat, D. High-resolution assessment of global technical and economic hydropower potential. Nature Energy 2 , — Almeida, R. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of Amazon hydropower with strategic dam planning.
Fuso Nerini, F. Mapping synergies and trade-offs between energy and the sustainable development goals. Energy 3 , 10— Muller, M. Hydropower dams can help mitigate the global warming impact of wetlands. Nature , — Pehl, M. Understanding future emissions from low-carbon power systems by integration of life-cycle assessment and integrated energy modelling. Energy 2 , — Wu, H. Effects of dam construction on biodiversity: a review. Article Google Scholar.
Turgeon, K. Dams have varying impacts on fish communities across latitudes: a quantitative synthesis. Article PubMed Google Scholar.
Gracey, E. Impacts from hydropower production on biodiversity in an LCA framework—review and recommendations. Life Cycle Assess. Lehner, B. Dorber, M. Modeling net land occupation of hydropower reservoirs in Norway for use in life cycle assessment.
Strachan, I. Does the creation of a boreal hydroelectric reservoir result in a net change in evaporation?. Mekonnen, M. The blue water footprint of electricity from hydropower. Earth Syst. Poff, N. Ecological responses to altered flow regimes: a literature review to inform the science and management of environmental flows. Gillespie, B. A critical analysis of regulated river ecosystem responses to managed environmental flows from reservoirs.
Urban, M. Accelerating extinction risk from climate change. Science , — Hermoso, V. McAllister, D. Biodiversity impacts of large dams. Background Paper Nr. Crook, D. Human effects on ecological connectivity in aquatic ecosystems: Integrating scientific approaches to support management and mitigation. Total Environ. Alho, C. Environmental effects of hydropower reservoirs on wild mammals and freshwater turtles in Amazonia: a review. Oecologia Australis 15 , — Kitzes, J. Estimating biodiversity impacts without field surveys: a case study in northern Borneo.
Ambio 45 , — Mace, G. Biodiversity and ecosystem services: a multilayered relationship. Trends Ecol. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Global Biodiversity Outlook 4.
Montreal, Bennett, E. Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being: three challenges for designing research for sustainability. Opoku, A. Biodiversity and the built environment: Implications for the sustainable development goals SDGs.
Blicharska, M. Winemiller, K. Balancing hydropower and biodiversity in the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong. Nilsson, M. Policy: map the interactions between sustainable development goals. Bhaduri, A. Achieving sustainable development goals from a water perspective. Liu, J.
Nexus approaches to global sustainable development. Shin, S. High resolution modeling of river-floodplain-reservoir inundation dynamics in the Mekong River Basin. Water Resour. Schmitt, R. Improved trade-offs of hydropower and sand connectivity by strategic dam planning in the Mekong. Pokhrel, Y. Potential disruption of flood dynamics in the Lower Mekong River Basin due to upstream flow regulation.
Ashraf, F. Changes in short term river flow regulation and hydropeaking in Nordic rivers. Barbarossa, V. Impacts of current and future large dams on the geographic range connectivity of freshwater fish worldwide. Scherer, L. Global water footprint assessment of hydropower. Energy 99 , — Evans, A. Assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies. Energy Rev. Laborde, A.
Strategic methodology to set priorities for sustainable hydropower development in a biodiversity hotspot. Haga, C. Scenario analysis of renewable energy-biodiversity nexuses using a forest landscape model. Zarfl, C. Future large hydropower dams impact global freshwater megafauna. Gibon, T. Health benefits, ecological threats of low-carbon electricity. Mu, Q. Remote Sens. Fick, S.
0コメント