Hydropower: Projections in a changing climate and impacts by this "clean" source

INTRODUCTION: Hydropower is an extensively used renewable source; in 2016, 159 countries reported benefiting; currently, there are around 9,000 projects in operation due to the competitive cost of generating a similar cost such as thermal energy such as coal, oil, or gas in the range of USD 4 - 5 cents US dollars per kilowatt-hour. OBJECTIVE: Investigate the results of hydroelectric development in the face of the changing climate and the generated impacts, making hydropower a subsector of special attention to discussing the global projection. METHOD: Bibliographic review to reflect on the global context of hydroelectricity based on scientific studies. RESULTS: Hydropower projects a 6% decrease for Europe by 2070, from 20% to 50% throughout the Mediterranean, and a reduction in usable capacity in most hydroelectric plants between 61% for the 2040 scenario– 2069 globally. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Globally, hydropower presents a broad vision of the advantages, and little said about the disadvantages and problems, and only there are specific studies that shown various project studied in a general way. It is shown that hydroelectric production has several implications in the face of the changing climate and impacts generated in ecosystems by the deployment of large infrastructures.

Population genetics of three threatened catfish species in heterogeneous environments of the Cauca River, Colombia

ABSTRACT Neotropical catfishes Ageneiosus pardalis, Pimelodus grosskopfii and Sorubim cuspicaudus are migratory fishes of commercial importance that exhibit decreasing populations due to overfishing and other anthropic interventions. This study used species-specific microsatellite loci to test the hypothesis that threatened fish populations show genetic vulnerability signs and are genetically structured in the middle and lower sections of the Cauca River. The studied species exhibit genetic diversity levels higher than the average values reported for Neotropical Siluriformes; however, they seem to have suffered recent bottlenecks and they present significant endogamy levels that are higher for the critically endangered catfish P. grosskopfii. Furthermore, both Ageneiosus pardalis and S. cuspicaudus are each formed by one genetic group, while Pimelodus grosskopfii comprises two coexisting genetic groups. The information obtained in this study is useful for the decision making in management plans that are appropriate for the sustainability of these three species populations within the proposal for the expansion of the hydroelectric development and other anthropic activities.

Culturally Driven Monitoring: The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indicators in Understanding Aquatic Ecosystem Change in the Northwest Territories’ Dehcho Region

There is growing concern about the sustainability of freshwater ecosystems in northern Canada that are under significant stress from climate change, resource development, and hydroelectric development, among others. Community-based monitoring (CBM) based on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has the potential to contribute to understanding impacts on the environment and community livelihoods. This paper shares insights about culturally driven monitoring, through collaborative research with Kátł’odeeche First Nation (KFN) in the Northwest Territories. This research was initiated in 2018 to improve understanding of the changes occurring in the Hay River and Buffalo River sub-basins, which extend primarily across the Alberta and Northwest Territories borders. Drawing on 15 semi-structured interviews conducted with KFN elders, fish harvesters, and youth, this paper illustrates the kinds of social–ecological indicators used by KFN to track changes in the health of aquatic systems as well as the fishing livelihoods of local people. Utilizing indicators, fishers observe declines in fish health, water quality, water quantity, and ice thickness in their lifetime. Community members perceive these changes to be a result of the cumulative effects of environmental stressors. The indicators as well as trends and patterns being observed and experienced can contribute to both social learning in the community as well as the governance of the larger Mackenzie River Basin.

Fishing Livelihoods and Diversifications in the Mekong River Basin in the Context of the Pak Mun Dam, Thailand

Fishing livelihoods are under stress in many regions of the world, including the lower Mekong river basin. Building on research on the socio-economic impacts of hydroelectric development, this paper explores the spatial dimensions of livelihood diversifications. Research in 2016 and 2017, involving 26 semi-structured interviews in nine upstream, downstream, tributary and relocated villages in the vicinity of the Pak Mun hydroelectric dam, provides insight into how villagers have coped and adapted fishing livelihoods over time. Results are consistent with other research that has detailed the adverse effects of hydroelectric development on fishing livelihoods. Interviewees in the nine communities in the Isan region of Thailand experienced declines in the abundance and diversity of fish valued as food, and engaged in other household economic activities to support their families, including rice farming, marketing of fishing assets and other innovations. Stories of youth leaving communities (rural-urban migration) in search of employment and education were also shared. Although exploratory, our work confronts theories that fishing is a livelihood practice of “last resort”. Narratives suggest that both fishing and diversification to other activities have been both necessary and a choice among villagers with the ultimate aim of offsetting the adverse impacts and associated insecurity created by the dam development.

Water powers: the Second World War and the mobilization of hydroelectricity in Canada, the United States, and Germany

Comparing three of the major hydroelectric power-producing countries during the war – Canada, the United States, and Germany – this article considers the implications of expanding hydroelectricity for war production and strategy, and how wartime decisions structured the longer-term evolution of large technological systems. Despite different starting points, all three countries pursued similar strategies in attempting to mobilize hydroelectricity for the war effort. The different access to and use of hydro in these states produced a vital economic and ultimately military advantage or disadvantage. The global dimensions of hydroelectric development during the war, moreover, demonstrate that this conflict was a turning point in the history of electrification.

Rendering Technical, Rendering Sacred: The Politics of Hydroelectric Development on British Columbia’s Saaghii Naachii/Peace River

This article analyzes debates over the Site C Dam on the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River in northeastern British Columbia (BC), Canada. After heated debate over the past several decades, construction on the CN$10 billion hydroelectric project—the largest in the province’s history—recently commenced. The article focuses on debates over the analysis and adjudication of cumulative effects, and concomitant treaty rights infringement, within the environmental review process. The shortcomings of the regulatory review process used to assess cumulative effects are analyzed in two ways: first, by a conventional academic assessment, and second, by a Dunne-Za teaching of the interrelationships between land, water, and animals in the dam-affected region. Through juxtaposing these two modes of analysis, the article engages with scholarship in political ecology and Indigenous political theory.

The five residential settlements built by HICA

With the exception of some individual buildings, the areas of residential housing constructed by the Cávado Hydroelectric Company(Hidroeléctrica do Cávado, or HICA) were not included in the debate on housing that was taking place at the time of their building, and later on were not considered worthy of any special attention. Despite their creation having been of fundamental importance to the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Cávado hydroelectric scheme, from an architectural point of view these settlements only became well-known for being the location of four buildings that were designed by thearchitect Januário Godinho: three Pousadas and a restaurant. The housing settlements were the result of a merging of the expectations of management, the bureaucratic systems of the technical services department and the needs dictated by the circumstances that were encountered as the work progressed. In other words, the hydroelectric development of the Cávado was the reason for the implantation in that location of an urban structure that had been designed and produced in a technical services department based in Porto.