May the Odds Be in Your Favor: Why Many Attempts to Reoperate Dams for the Environment Stall
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 148, Issue 5
Abstract
The provision of flows for the environment, e-flows, is a means to restore the benefits of naturally flowing rivers. Despite the development of numerous methodologies to determine e-flows and optimize dam releases, actual implementation is relatively limited. Examples of successful e-flows implementation through dam reoperation exist in scientific literature; however, there is a missing narrative on cases where dam reoperation has been attempted but not successfully implemented. This study explores this impasse narrative and presents four hypotheses for further research on this subject: (1) Scientists are important stakeholders in the process of dam reoperation, but should play a supportive role rather than drive the process; (2) In undertaking scientific studies for determination of e-flows, a consensus on the priorities, knowledge gap, and solutions must be reached together with local stakeholders; (3) Local-level legislation and policy on e-flows provide the enabling environment for dam reoperation for e-flows; and (4) Genuine, carefully designed consultations of, and negotiations between, stakeholders can overcome hurdles encountered in the process of dam reoperation for e-flows implementation.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository or online in accordance with funder data retention policies. [Owusu, A. G., Mul, M., van der Zaag, P., & Slinger, J. (2020). Dataset-Global survey of environmental flow realization and dam re-operation. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:0007a286-56d8-4f37-bf47-338738200c69.]
Acknowledgments
This research is part of the EuroFLOW project (European training and research network for environmental flow management in river basins) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant Agreement (MSCA) No. 765553. J.S. is supported by the Multi-Actor Systems Research Programme of TU Delft. The authors are grateful to all the survey respondents for their input.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 148 • Issue 5 • May 2022
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Received: Nov 11, 2020
Accepted: Oct 28, 2021
Published online: Feb 17, 2022
Published in print: May 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 17, 2022
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