Review on Governance in Hydroelectric Projects and Impacts on Natural Resources

This article reviewed the literature to highlight how governance in hydroelectric enterprises is configured and the impacts on natural resources resulting from this type of energy production. The methodological procedures were based on the PRISMA recommendation (Main Items for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis) and indexed articles were used from the SCOPUS database. It was evidenced that more than 1/3 of the studies were conducted in Brazil, highlighting the potential of the Amazon region of the country for the construction of hydroelectric dams. Four essential subjects were identified as to be observed by the governance of these enterprises: stakeholder participation, habitat fragmentation, social impacts, and impacts on fish species. These subjects constitute three categories that synthesize governance in hydroelectric projects and the impacts on natural resources: energy policies – which generate benefits for the private sector and contemplate very little the local communities and the environment; water resources and fish - the impacts are related to the type of enterprise to be built, which can compromise the migration and reproduction of fish, in addition to the increasing concentration of nutrients in reservoirs and changes of the water quality; and biodiversity and ecosystem – which are affected by the fragmentation and alteration of natural habitats caused by dam floods.

The Importance of Monitoring River Water Discharge

River discharge time series, originally recorded to anticipate floods and water scarcity, later became indispensable to design hydroelectric dams. Presently, discharge monitoring aids in detecting climatic and environmental change, because the discharge and quality of river water are functions of many climatic, biological, geological, and topographic variables coexisting in the basin. Climate change is altering the atmospheric precipitation distribution pattern-both, in time and space-as well as the occurrence of extreme climatic events. It is important the global upgrading of river gauging networks to unveil hydrological trends and changing atmospheric patterns. In so doing, discharge monitoring stations–and the resulting time series-may be, as well, invaluable in revealing the role played by significant environmental variables.

Atikamekw and Euro-Canadian Territorialities around the Saint-Maurice River (1850–1930)

This essay focuses on the processes of territorialization, deterritorialization and reterritorialization through which Euro-Canadian society extended its control along the valley of the St. Maurice River between 1850 and 1930. That territory had been settled by the Atikamekw people where they had established their hunting and fishing grounds for centuries. However, the Atikamekw people were confronted by environmental and technological transformations around the St. Maurice River with the implementation of sociotechnical systems during that time period, as two successive phases of industrialization based on specific water use brought along a proliferation of urban centers and the arrival of the large-scale industry. This was particularly the case when the proliferation of hydroelectric dams along the St. Maurice River and its tributaries followed the construction of fluvial infrastructure to facilitate the floating of wood pulp harvested in the upper basin of the river. Not only did the technical activities surrounding the construction of hydroelectric facilities materially transform the St. Maurice River watershed, they also allowed a symbolic appropriation of the land by the production of maps and surveys that ‘erased’ the presence of the Atikamekw. Physical and symbolic boundaries resulting from these new forms of organization and configuration of the territory restricted the spatial practices and representations of the Atikamekw. Logging confined these people within isolated enclaves (the so-called “Indian reserves”), while dams bypassed their networks of exchange and communication. The aim of this essay is to understand the conflicts between the territorialities of the Atikamekw and that of the Euro-Canadians by focusing on the place of water uses within the geographical imaginations and the land use patterns of these populations.

Development and Validation of a Railway Safety System for Nordic Trains in Isolated Territories of Northern Quebec Based on 802.15.4 Protocol

Connected objects are deployed all over the world. Thus, they are contributing to improving communications. In urban areas, technological challenges are gradually being overcome, and advances in this area are exponential. Unfortunately, isolated territories such as northern Quebec do not beneficiate from this technological progress. Yet, northern Quebec relies on abundant natural resources, with notably its huge hydroelectric dams and iron mines, and therefore, the region’s economic life revolves essentially around the exploitation of these resources and is heavily reliant on rail transportation. However, according to Transport Canada, 1246 railroad accidents were reported in 2019 to the Transportation Safety Board (TSB). Thirty-eight people described as trespassers lost their lives, and five railroad employees were fatally injured. In this context, we present the implementation of a security system in an isolated environment for employees intervening on the railroad track to warn them of the imminent arrival of a train. Due to the context of the isolated environment, i.e., without an electrical network, without internet, and without an LTE network, a solution for employees has been developed using a Zigbee telecommunication system and a connected watch. A case study on a train operating in a remote and isolated area in northern Quebec is presented to validate the performance of the proposed system based on an open-source and customizable solution.

A new species of Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920 (Anura, Odontophrynidae) from Southern Amazonia, Brazil

Based on concordant differences in morphology, male advertisement call, and 16S mtDNA barcode distance, we describe a new species of Proceratophrys from southern Amazonia, in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, Brazil. The new species is most similar to P. concavitympanum and P. ararype but differs from these species by its proportionally larger eyes and features of the advertisement call. Additionally, genetic distance between the new species and its congeners is 3.0–10.4% based on a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene, which is greater than the threshold typically characterizing distinct species of anurans. Using an integrative approach (molecular, bioacoustics, and adult morphology), we were able to distinguish the new species from other congeneric species. The new species is known only from the type locality where it is threatened by illegal logging and gold mining as well as hydroelectric dams.

Avian extinctions induced by the oldest Amazonian hydropower mega dam: evidence from museum collections and sighting data spanning 172 years

Hydroelectric dams represent an emergent threat to lowland tropical forest biodiversity. Despite the large number of operational, under-construction, and planned hydroelectric dams, their long-term effects on biodiversity loss are still poorly documented. Here, we investigate avian extinctions resulting from the Tucuruí Hydroelectric Reservoir (THR), the oldest Amazonian mega dam, which impounded the Tocantins River in 1984. Our avian inventory—based on several sampling methods (mist-netting, point-counts, boat census and qualitative surveys) during 280 days of fieldwork from 2005 to 2007—was combined with an exhaustive search of museum vouchers and digital online databases of citizen science from the lower Tocantins River to identify long-term trends in species persistence and extinction in the THR influence area. The regional avifauna was comprised of 479 species, 404 of which were recorded during our fieldwork. Based on recent and historical records spanning 172 years, we found evidence for likely extinctions at THR influence area for 53 (11.06%) species that have remained entirely unreported since 1984. We were further able to estimate extinction probabilities for 20 species; 15 species were considered to be extinct, including Psophia interjecta and Pyrilia vulturina that are red-listed by IUCN. Our study serves as a baseline for avifaunal monitoring in the THR influence area and shows that degree of habitat specialization is a key factor in determining species extinctions caused by nonrandom habitat loss from either inundation or deforestation. Avian species extinctions will most likely continue across the area affected by the reservoir as a direct impact of alluvial forest loss and ongoing habitat degradation of upland forests.

A large dataset of detection and submeter-accurate 3-D trajectories of juvenile Chinook salmon

Acoustic telemetry has been used extensively to study the behavior of aquatic animals. The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) is one such system; it was developed for studying juvenile salmonids but has been used to study numerous species. A recent innovation of the JSATS system is an acoustic transmitter that is small enough to be implanted through injection or small incision that doesn’t require sutures. Use of the JSATS system involves deploying cabled acoustic receivers at hydroelectric dams, or other structures, and autonomous acoustic receivers in free-flowing sections of a river. The raw detections from acoustic-tagged fish are processed to remove potential false positives. The clean detections (5,147,996 total) are used to generate detection events and to compute 3-D trajectories (403,900 total), which are used to assign fish to a passage route through a dam. Controlled field testing involving a high-accuracy Global Positioning System receiver is done to validate the submeter accuracy of the trajectories. The JSATS dataset could be reused for expanding the understanding of near-dam fish behavior.