{"id":20725,"date":"2015-01-21T16:28:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=20725"},"modified":"2021-11-10T16:41:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T20:41:37","slug":"map-reveals-impacts-present-future-dams-rivers-around-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/map-reveals-impacts-present-future-dams-rivers-around-world.htm","title":{"rendered":"Map reveals impacts of present and future dams on rivers around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humans built the first dam sometime around 3000 B.C. in Jordan, and boy, did we like it. Enough, in fact, that over the past several millennia we\u2019ve constructed hundreds of thousands more. Only in recent years have scientists begun to understand the impacts of dams on ecosystems: altered flow regimes; disconnected migration routes; changes to water temperature, sediment and oxygen. And even those effects have rarely been examined beyond the scope of an individual watershed.<\/p>\n

Researchers from McGill University may have changed that precedent. They created a map detailing dam impact around the world using data from 1930 to the present, plus projected dam placement data through 2030. In addition to the map, the team developed a River Fragmentation Index to quantify where dams have impacted river flow and fragmentation the most. Their findings were published in Environmental Research Letters.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time the researchers have studied dams on a global scale, but the project is unique in its resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done it previously with simpler methods, for example, just counting how many dams there are,\u201d said Bernhard Lehner, a professor at McGill and research director of the project. \u201cNow we really place them into the river network and take account of where and what tributaries they are on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cwhere and what\u201d of dam placement is a vital aspect in determining a dam\u2019s impact on an ecosystem, Lehner said, and one that the RFI helps put into perspective. Installing a dam squarely in the center of a river network or on the main stem is considered a more detrimental form of fragmentation than placing it toward the upper end of a headwater branch, and would warrant a higher RFI. Additionally, certain tributaries are more susceptible to damage from dam placement, based on various qualities such as sediment composition, resident species and flow rates.<\/p>\n

\"Map

Map showing the effects of dams on the rivers around the world. (Credit: McGill University)<\/p><\/div>\n

A second index, the river regulation index, quantifies how much of a river\u2019s water can be stored in reservoirs. This number gives insight into how a river\u2019s flow regime is affected by dam placement. Together, the RFI and RRI allow the researchers to grade the impact of any given dam, existing or planned.<\/p>\n

The indices developed by the McGill University team couldn\u2019t exist without comprehensive data on dams worldwide, but that information isn\u2019t easy to come by. Working across borders \u2014 all borders, in this case \u2014 is hard enough when the precise coordinates of rivers and dams vary depending on which country you query. And plans for future dams are often regarded as matters of national security, so asking for them nicely isn\u2019t always helpful. The researchers instead relied on their own ingenuity, and aid from like-minded individuals at universities around the world to put the map together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main ingredient for this study is a very high-resolution global river network, one we produced ourselves that comes from satellite imagery,\u201d Lehner said. They also incorporated a dam database compiled by 14 international universities and research groups, and future dam plans acquired by the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it gives us an edge,\u201d Lehner said. \u201cWe can run simulations saying, \u2018If you plan 100 new dams in one basin, which ones might be the better ones, which ones might be the worst?\u2019 Maybe you build 10 or 20 rather than 100.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Map

Map showing the effects of dams on the western hemisphere. (Credit: McGill University)<\/p><\/div>\n

There are remarkably few large rivers left on Earth that are not fragmented by dams, including the Amazon, the Mekong and the Amur in Russia. But with many plans for new dams in the Mekong Basin, for example, the fate of its now-bountiful fisheries remains unclear. But minimization and optimization, rather than total elimination of dams, is probably the best course of action going forward, Lehner said. Optimizing existing dams could \u201cmake it redundant to build new ones,\u201d and a strategic planning approach that looks at the combined effects of all dams in a basin, rather than simply building them one by one, could spare tributaries from hasty, unnecessary installations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have simple solutions, but I think we can do better planning overall,\u201d Lehner said. \u201cThat might be the compromise: There may be need for new ones, but we have to find the best places and operating rules for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planning on that level will require better monitoring of rivers before and after dam placement, so that managers will have a broader understanding of what\u2019s at stake. And that\u2019s quite a lot, Lehner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDams are built, on one hand, to get more usage out of a river, but we have to realize that these negative side effects often counter that [usefulness],\u201d Lehner said. \u201cThese ecosystems all have a value. That\u2019s, in the end, what we\u2019re interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEcosystem deterioration, I think, is only a starting point for what we can expect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Top image:\u00a0The Hoover Dam. (Credit: Airwolfhound, via Flickr\/CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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