Räsänan, T. et al. Observed river discharge changes due to hydropower operations in the Upper Mekong Basin.
The discharge impacts are expected to vary from year to year depending on hydropower operations.
Roughly 59percentt of Canada's electricity is generated by hydropower operations, with another 16percentt coming from nuclear plants, so it has already surpassed the targeted benchmark.
It is thus critical to understand and minimize its ecological impacts, by developing management guidelines for hydropower operations.
Our findings indicate that the hydropower operations have considerably modified the river discharges since 2011 and the largest changes were observed in 2014.
For instance, will all rivers be free of dams -- or do we have alternative plans for hydropower operations that might be compatible with people and conservation?
An increase in small hydropower operations is occurring in Switzerland, partly in response to available or anticipated subsidies.
Alpine hydropower operations offer an opportunity to meet these needs, but careful design is needed to minimize environmental harm.
Environmental harm associated with existing hydropower operations, specifically with hydropeaking, could also be mitigated through the use of buffer zones or reservoirs.
Changing societal expectations require that decisions previously addressed in a sectoral manner (e.g., location, design, and management of hydropower operations) must now incorporate broader objectives such as ecological impact and societal acceptance.
In one Swiss prioritization project, catchments have been characterized based on their current ecological value and level of environmental pressure (not only from existing hydropower operations but also from infrastructure for flood control, wastewater treatment, etc).
