Literature

To support Hydropower by Design implementation, decision-makers and practitioners need access to relevant and current knowledge. This page includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, manuals, reports, and other literature, with links to PDF versions where available. It has been organized in alphabetical order, based on the author and includes an annotation to help the reader get a sense of content.

• Anderson, Elizabeth P., Catherine M. Pringle and Mary C. Freeman. "Quantifying the extent of river fragmentation by hydropower dams in the Sarapiqui River Basin, Costa Rica." Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 18 (2008): 408 – 417. doi: 10.1002/aqc.882.

  Costa Rica has recently experienced a rapid proliferation of dams for hydropower on rivers draining its northern Caribbean slope. In the Sarapiqui River Basin, eight hydropower plants were built between 1990 and 1999 and more projects are either under construction or proposed. While the potential environmental effects of individual projects are evaluated prior to dam construction, there is a need for consideration of the basin-scale ecological consequences of hydropower development. This study was a first attempt to quantify the extent of river fragmentation by dams in the Sarapiqui River Basin.

• Bunn, Stuart E. and Angela H. Arthington. "Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity." Environmental Management 30 (2002): 492-507. doi: 10.1007/s00267-002-2737-0.

  The flow regime is regarded by many aquatic ecologists to be the key driver of river and floodplain wetland ecosystems. This literature review focuses around four key principles to highlight the mechanisms linking hydrology and aquatic biodiversity to illustrate the consequent impacts of altered flow regime – flow as a determinate of physical habitat and biotic composition; aquatic species evolution as a direct response to natural flow regime; riverine species dependence on lateral and longitudinal connectivity; and success of exotic species as a result of altered flow regimes.

• Finer, Matt and Clinton N. Jenkins. "Proliferation of hydroelectric dams in the Andean Amazon and implications for Andes-Amazon connectivity." PLoS ONE 7 (2012): 4. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0035126.

  This study examines the potential ecological impacts, in terms of river connectivity and forest loss, of the planned proliferation of hydroelectric dams across all Andean tributaries of the Amazon River. Considering data on the full portfolios of existing and planned dams, along with data on roads and transmission line systems, Finer and Jenkins developed a new conceptual framework to estimate the relative impacts of all planned dams.

• Greathouse, Effie A. et al. "Indirect upstream effects of dams: consequences of migratory consumer extirpation in Puerto Rico." Ecological Applications 16 (2006): 339 – 352. https://www.fs.fed.us/global/iitf/pubs/ja_iitf_2006_greathouse002%20no%20claim.pdf.

  This study by Greathouse, et al. investigates indirect upstream effects of dams resulting from decimation of migratory freshwater shrimp and fish populations in Puerto Rico, USA, in both high- and low-gradient streams.

• Grill, Gunther et al. "Development of new indicators to evaluate river fragmentation and flow regulation at large scales: A case study for the Mekong River Basin." Ecological Indicators 24 (2014): 148 – 159. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X14001289.

  This paper addresses two main ecological impacts – reduced river connectivity and changes in the natural flow regime – at the scale of the entire Mekong River Basin with the goal to improve understanding of the effect of individual dams as well as clusters of dams at a very large scale. Two new indices are introduced – River Connectivity Index and the River Regulation Index.

• Grill, Gunther et al. "An index-based framework for assessing patterns and trends in river fragmentation and flow regulation by global dams at multiple scales." Environmental Research Letters 10 (2015). doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/10/1/015001.

  New approaches and advanced methodologies are needed to improve predictions of how future dam construction will affect biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and fluvial geomorphology worldwide, helping to frame a global strategy to achieve sustainable dam development. This study responds to this need by applying a graph-based river routing model to simultaneously assess flow regulation and fragmentation by dams at multiple scales using data at high spatial resolution.

• The Nature Conservancy, WWF and the University of Manchester. Improving hydropower outcomes through system-scale planning: an example from Myanmar. 2016. https://thought-leadership-production.s3.amazonaws.com/2016/05/09/13/53/29/e26cf10b-9a56-463d-97fc-0309b1fde0d6/System-Scale%20Planning_Myanmar_Report.pdf.

  This report examines hydropower development in Myanmar to explore a fundamental challenge: how can governments make informed decisions about infrastructure developments that will deliver the broadest range of benefits to their people over the long term? Two broad hypotheses are explored: hydropower planning at a system scale can help stakeholders find better-balanced solutions with lower impacts and conflicts; and countries can adopt system-scale approaches in ways that avoid creating unacceptable burdens or delays.

• Lehner, Bernhard et al. "High-resolution mapping of the world’s reservoirs and dams for sustainable river-flow management." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9 (2011): 494 – 502. doi: 10.1890/100125.

  To enable advanced assessments of the role and effects of dams within the global river network and to support strategies for mitigating ecohydrological and socioeconomic costs, this report introduces the spatially explicit and hydrologically linked Global Reservoir and Dam database (GRanD).

• Suhardiman, Diana, Sanjiv de Silva and Jeremy Carew-Reid. "Policy Review and Institutional Analysis of the Hydropower Sector in Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam." 2011. https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/12594/retrieve.

  This report reviews existing policies and legal frameworks relating to land-water-environment management with a focus on hydropower development and livelihood options in Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It describes and analyzes the sectoral decision-making process at a national level and links this process with operational rules and procedures of hydropower projects in each of the three countries.

• Richter, et al. "Lost in development’s shadow: the downstream human consequences of dams." Water Alternatives 3 (2010): 14-42. http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/volume3/v3issue2/80-a3-2-3/file.

  By substantially changing natural flow patterns and blocking movements of fish and other animals, large dams can severely disrupt natural riverine production systems – especially fisheries, flood recession agriculture, and dry-season grazing. This report offers the first global estimate of the number of river-dependent people potentially affected by dam-induced changes in river flows and other ecosystem conditions.

• The Nature Conservancy. The Power of Rivers: Finding balance between energy and conservation in hydropower development. 2015. https://www.nature.org/media/freshwater/power-of-rivers-report.pdf.

  The Nature Conservancy's white paper addresses the global expansion of hydropower dams and the need to find development scenarios that provide energy, but also work for communities and nature. Designed as a resource for hydropower companies, governments, financiers and other organizations, The Nature Conservancy used a global database of dams currently planned or under construction to demonstration how system-scale approaches can produce more-balanced outcomes for rivers and energy.

• The Nature Conservancy. The Power of Rivers: A Business Case. 2017. https://thought-leadership-production.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/04/26/17/43/50/ec440bc1-f566-4436-8194-88d2531ef507/powerofriversreport_final.pdf.

  The Nature Conservancy's white paper, a follow-up to their 2015 report The Power of Rivers, develops a 'business case' for Hydropower by Design (HbD) and sustainable hydropower practices more broadly. Through a series of case studies, this report illustrates how HbD can offer a range of economic benefits to countries, developers and investors in addition to the social and environmental benefits rivers provide.