Big Dams and Climate Change: A Debate
21/03/12 14:04
I did not personally attend this session though I was in Marseille at the same time, but a colleague sent a link this morning to a debate at the World Water Forum last week on big dams and their role in maintaining or creating climate resilience:
http://www.worldwaterforum6.org/en/gallery/videos/forum-sessions-and-conferences/friday-16-march/?id=308
(scroll to the bottom of the screen to the third of the three YouTube vidoes to watch the debate, which itself is divided into eight or nine segments)
http://www.worldwaterforum6.org/en/gallery/videos/forum-sessions-and-conferences/friday-16-march/?id=308
(scroll to the bottom of the screen to the third of the three YouTube vidoes to watch the debate, which itself is divided into eight or nine segments)
The invitees themselves are interesting. John Briscoe is a very well known Harvard engineer with a long track record in water infrastructure. International Rivers and Martin Geiger (current director of freshwater at WWF, though leaving for the private sector in about a month) suggest alternative approaches, such as alternative ecosytem-based or aquifer storage mechanisms. Eugene Stakhiv, very active in AGWA, is one of the senior engineers with the US Army Corps of Engineers, who has been very active in debates around climate change and water management. There are allusions to the need for flexibility and alternative operating approaches (such as e-flows) but they are limited and a bit weak.
It is interesting that none of the participants mention what (IMHO) may be the biggest argument against big dams and climate change, which is that these dams are very difficult to design well anymore given such profound shifts in the hydrological cycle and flow regime. This is actually a big part of Eugene’s current body of work and a big emphasis within AGWA as well. Many big dams, such as the Hoover dam in the US, no longer match the climate they were designed for. Thus, they function far below optimum values and tend to have inordinate impacts on the ecosystems and livelihoods in their environs. Given that they tend to last 100 to 200 years, the divergence between function and climate can become quite dramatic, and this is happening in dams worldwide on a decadal scale. In areas where the climate is shifting rapidly, such as the Andes and Himalayas, the divergence can occur even more rapidly.
Also worth noting is the second of the three videos, which features Jeremy Bird, who was just named as the new head of IWMI, which is one of the world’s most important hydrological research institutes (based in Colombo, Sri Lanka). He’s talking about food security and water management, which is a big emphasis for IWMI and CGIAR.
It is interesting that none of the participants mention what (IMHO) may be the biggest argument against big dams and climate change, which is that these dams are very difficult to design well anymore given such profound shifts in the hydrological cycle and flow regime. This is actually a big part of Eugene’s current body of work and a big emphasis within AGWA as well. Many big dams, such as the Hoover dam in the US, no longer match the climate they were designed for. Thus, they function far below optimum values and tend to have inordinate impacts on the ecosystems and livelihoods in their environs. Given that they tend to last 100 to 200 years, the divergence between function and climate can become quite dramatic, and this is happening in dams worldwide on a decadal scale. In areas where the climate is shifting rapidly, such as the Andes and Himalayas, the divergence can occur even more rapidly.
Also worth noting is the second of the three videos, which features Jeremy Bird, who was just named as the new head of IWMI, which is one of the world’s most important hydrological research institutes (based in Colombo, Sri Lanka). He’s talking about food security and water management, which is a big emphasis for IWMI and CGIAR.
blog comments powered by Disqus
