This document provides an overview of dams, their history, impacts and the challenges of planning and assessing them. It discusses how dams were used historically for national development but often had under-estimated costs and over-estimated benefits. It describes past efforts to improve dam planning like the World Commission on Dams and challenges they faced. It outlines the research questions and cross-disciplinary approach of the FutureDams project to help design dams that maximize benefits and minimize conflicts over their social and environmental impacts.
Vinalhaven, Maine hosted a Design & Resilience Team (DART) in October 2017 to produce a strategy on adaptation to sea-level rise, downtown revitalization, and livability.
Vinalhaven, Maine hosted a Design & Resilience Team (DART) in October 2017 to produce a strategy on adaptation to sea-level rise, downtown revitalization, and livability.
Rex LaMore; Ph.D. Michigan State University, Center for Community and Economic Development & Urban and Regional Planning Program
George Bargham Ph.D. MSU Construction Management Program
On Friday, July 9th, the Central Texas American Planning Association (APA) learned by the Sustainable Sites Initiative from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's own Dr. Steve Windhager.
The goal of Sustainable Sites Initiative is to do for landscape design what LEED certification has done for building design. Under the Sustainable Sites Initiative, sites qualify for certification (1 star, 2 star, 3 star, and 4 star) based on a 250 point scale. As of June 2010, 174 pilot projects were started under the Sustainable Site Initiative.
This quick summary doesn't do Dr. Windhager's presentation justice, so check out his presentation complete with interesting facts about the ROI of urban forests and how New York street trees provide climate moderating benefits to the tune of $27.8 million.
Get more information about sustainable sites here: www.sustainablesites.org
This portfolio includes information about a tidal energy research project with the University of Reykjavik, a design project for an artificial reef in Hawaii, and a collection of original pictures, videos, and sketches.
Oil and gas are essential parts of a sustainable future. Though these are finite energy resources and sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the world continues to require their production. For this reason, it is imperative that we consider improved industry practices.
To begin, the audience will be presented with the most basic principles of sustainability pertaining to oil and gas operations, including SPE’s position on this matter. When oil is discovered at a location, decisions and guarantees cannot be made without considering the project’s life cycle. Our commitments must be demonstrated consistently along each stage of a project in direct consideration of a sustainable future.
Next, several case studies relating to sustainability, integrating the realities of the social license to operate and operations will be presented to the audience, detailing the required steps for the successful execution of any project facing challenging conditions.
The presentation will conclude by underlining that the inclusion of internal and external stakeholders will only enrich the project and, therefore, pave the road to success. It is our responsibility to create a culture of operational professionalism and reliability through active participation. In order to counterbalance the world’s energy demand, we must produce oil and gas while considering that the more efficiently the energy is produced, the more affordable the energy will be. The oil industry is not only committed to its own sustainability but also to the sustainability of our planet.
Sustainable approaches to coastal design and adaption to sea level riseShannon Cunniff
Introduction to the use of natural coastal infrastructure and hybrid designs and methods to organize stakeholders to develop comprehensive plans for coastal protection and restoration.
Helping people, economies & the environment thriveShannon Cunniff
This presentation covers sustainable approaches to coastal design and adaption to sea level rise, It emphasizes use of natural coastal infrastructure and soft shoreline and other hybrid solutions and how communities can build broad stakeholder engagement to create comprehensive solutions to ensure coastal communities have vibrant futures.
Presented by IWMI's Luna Bharati, Senior Researcher-Hydrology Water Resources, at a high level policy dialog held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 27, 2016.
Presentation given by Joakim Harlin at the International Conference on IWRM in Tokyo - December 2004
1) The Pungwe River Basin IWRM project
2) Reflections on typical issues, constraints and needs
By Robyn Johnston and Vladimir Smakhtin. Presented at the "Water in the Anthropocene: Challenges for Science and Governance. Indicators, Thresholds and Uncertainties of the Global Water System" conference in Bonn, Germany May 2013
Rex LaMore; Ph.D. Michigan State University, Center for Community and Economic Development & Urban and Regional Planning Program
George Bargham Ph.D. MSU Construction Management Program
On Friday, July 9th, the Central Texas American Planning Association (APA) learned by the Sustainable Sites Initiative from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's own Dr. Steve Windhager.
The goal of Sustainable Sites Initiative is to do for landscape design what LEED certification has done for building design. Under the Sustainable Sites Initiative, sites qualify for certification (1 star, 2 star, 3 star, and 4 star) based on a 250 point scale. As of June 2010, 174 pilot projects were started under the Sustainable Site Initiative.
This quick summary doesn't do Dr. Windhager's presentation justice, so check out his presentation complete with interesting facts about the ROI of urban forests and how New York street trees provide climate moderating benefits to the tune of $27.8 million.
Get more information about sustainable sites here: www.sustainablesites.org
This portfolio includes information about a tidal energy research project with the University of Reykjavik, a design project for an artificial reef in Hawaii, and a collection of original pictures, videos, and sketches.
Oil and gas are essential parts of a sustainable future. Though these are finite energy resources and sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the world continues to require their production. For this reason, it is imperative that we consider improved industry practices.
To begin, the audience will be presented with the most basic principles of sustainability pertaining to oil and gas operations, including SPE’s position on this matter. When oil is discovered at a location, decisions and guarantees cannot be made without considering the project’s life cycle. Our commitments must be demonstrated consistently along each stage of a project in direct consideration of a sustainable future.
Next, several case studies relating to sustainability, integrating the realities of the social license to operate and operations will be presented to the audience, detailing the required steps for the successful execution of any project facing challenging conditions.
The presentation will conclude by underlining that the inclusion of internal and external stakeholders will only enrich the project and, therefore, pave the road to success. It is our responsibility to create a culture of operational professionalism and reliability through active participation. In order to counterbalance the world’s energy demand, we must produce oil and gas while considering that the more efficiently the energy is produced, the more affordable the energy will be. The oil industry is not only committed to its own sustainability but also to the sustainability of our planet.
Sustainable approaches to coastal design and adaption to sea level riseShannon Cunniff
Introduction to the use of natural coastal infrastructure and hybrid designs and methods to organize stakeholders to develop comprehensive plans for coastal protection and restoration.
Helping people, economies & the environment thriveShannon Cunniff
This presentation covers sustainable approaches to coastal design and adaption to sea level rise, It emphasizes use of natural coastal infrastructure and soft shoreline and other hybrid solutions and how communities can build broad stakeholder engagement to create comprehensive solutions to ensure coastal communities have vibrant futures.
Presented by IWMI's Luna Bharati, Senior Researcher-Hydrology Water Resources, at a high level policy dialog held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 27, 2016.
Presentation given by Joakim Harlin at the International Conference on IWRM in Tokyo - December 2004
1) The Pungwe River Basin IWRM project
2) Reflections on typical issues, constraints and needs
By Robyn Johnston and Vladimir Smakhtin. Presented at the "Water in the Anthropocene: Challenges for Science and Governance. Indicators, Thresholds and Uncertainties of the Global Water System" conference in Bonn, Germany May 2013
Energy Low Emission Development Strategies: A Regional Overview of Latin Am...Worldwatch Institute
Overall, Latin America and the Caribbean has traditionally been a world leader in the use of renewable energy sources for power generation (mainly hydro power), with important sub-regional differences, but the use of fossil fuels grew rapidly in the late 1900s.
There have been many initiatives on renewables and energy efficiency on the part of governments and local organizations, supported by multilateral development banks, UN organizations, international NGOs.
The recent development of non-traditional renewable energies (wind, solar, geothermal, modern biomass) is helping meet important development goals (growth, access, affordability) with a lower impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
There are still important challenges related to investment climate and business model financing, but there are many lessons to share, both on what works and what doesn´t work.
A presentation about comprehensive wastewater planning at the town level. Presented by Dr. Robert Duncanson, Chatham Health & Environment Director, during the Buzzards Bay Coalition's 2013 Decision Makers Workshop series. Learn more at www.savebuzzardsbay.org/DecisionMakers
Similar to FutureDAMS Peking University presentation (20)
In this presentation Dale Whittington and Kerry Smith explore the history of the ex-ante economic analysis of large dams through the discussion of six key developments that have occurred since the 1950s:
- adding systems analysis
- incorporating multiple objectives
- incorporating environment and social losses
- incorporating economy-wide linkages
- modelling non-cooperative behaviour
- dealing with uncertainty.
Current best practice in the application of ex ante economic analysis tries to address a subset of these developments, but there are no case studies or guidelines that an analyst can reference to learn how best to incorporate all six developments in the ex-ante appraisal of a new dam. We conclude that current professional practice in the ex-ante assessment of large dams has not yet caught up with the scholarly literature on these six developments and highlight the need for a new era of engagement by scholars and practitioners on this “old” challenging problem.
Related Research:
FutureDAMS working paper 'The ex-ante economic analysis of investments in large dams: a brief history' available at FutureDAMS.org/publications
Professor Aung Ze Ya’s presentation gives an introduction to FutureDAMS, the project’s work in Myanmar and the challenges of the region. HIC training January 2020.
The Global Development Institute Lecture Series is pleased to present Dr Emma Mawdsley, Reader in Human Geography and Fellow of Newnham College to discuss "The Southernisation of Development? Who has 'socialised' who in the new millennium?"
A more polycentric global development landscape has emerged over the past decade or so, rupturing the formerly dominant North-South axis of power and knowledge. This can be traced through more diversified development norms, institutions, imaginaries and actors. This paper looks at one trend within this turbulent field: namely, the ways in which ‘Northern’ donors appear to be increasingly adopting some of the narratives and practices associated with ‘Southern’ development partners. This direction of travel stands in sharp contrast to expectations in the early new millennium that the (so-called) ‘traditional’ donors would ‘socialise’ the ‘rising powers’ to become ‘responsible donors’. After outlining important caveats about using such cardinal terms, the paper explores three aspects of this ‘North’ to ‘South’ movement. These are (a) the stronger and more explicit claim to ‘win-win’ development ethics and outcomes; (b) the (re)turn from ‘poverty reduction’ to ‘economic growth’ growth as the central analytic of development; and related to both, the explicit and deepening blurring and blending of development finances and agendas with trade and investment.
Zimbabwe’s recent history has been shaped by battles about who speaks for the nation, one fought out in struggles for control of political institutions, the media, and civil society. Sara Rich Dorman will examine the interactions of social groups — churches, NGOs, and political parties — from the liberation struggle, through the independence decades, as they engaged the state and ruling party and track how the relationship between Mugabe’s ruling party and activists was determined by the liberation struggle. She will discuss how both structural and direct violence were deployed by the regime, but also how ad-hoc and unplanned many of their interventions really were.
The Future Dams Research Consortium (originally known as DAMS 2.0) hosted a public lecture by Prof Michael Hanemann of Arizona State University on the economics of water.
The lecture discussed ‘why the economics of water is so hard’ providing a historical and contemporary US overview of the issues that make water challenging to price.
As part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series and in collaboration with the Post-Crash Economics Society Dr Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, delivered a lecture entitled: Are some countries destined for under-development?
As part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series Dr Irene Guijt, Head of Research at Oxfam GB, delivered a lecture entitled: Evidence for Influencing: Balancing research integrity and campaign strategy in Oxfam
When using evidence to influence, what compromises have to be made in different contexts due to practical, political and strategic reasons?
Dr Guijt presents on challenges and successes, using examples of Oxfam research and campaign strategies from across the world.
As part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series Prof AbdouMaliq Simone discusses collective operations in urban settings.
Despite a flood of knowledge, urban residents increasingly do not know where they are. It’s not a matter of geographical illiteracy or social confusion. Rather, the complexities of urban environments mean that a kind of darkness prevails, with residents unable to come up with a coherent working narrative for their feelings and situations.
Prof Simone will explore the ways in which residents, particularly in Jakarta and Hyderabad, deal with this darkness, where countervailing realities all seem to be equally possible; where the haphazard and brazenly opportunistic expansions of built environments reaffirm or cultivate interiors of care, of people looking out for each other.
Addressing shelter inequalities: Lessons from urban India
"Housing in the Global South faces a number of challenges, including poor construction quality, citizen exclusion, and (in)appropriate standards, leading to significant inequalities.
What lessons emerge for tackling urban shelter inequalities from experiences in the Global South? Prof Mitlin will share findings from research in India where civil society organisations have been working with municipal and state governments to address housing needs through innovation."
The Global Development Lecture Series brings experts involved in global development to The University of Manchester. It aims to facilitate dialogue and discussion, providing a space for leading development thinkers to share their latest research and ideas.
Natural farming @ Dr. Siddhartha S. Jena.pptxsidjena70
A brief about organic farming/ Natural farming/ Zero budget natural farming/ Subash Palekar Natural farming which keeps us and environment safe and healthy. Next gen Agricultural practices of chemical free farming.
Characterization and the Kinetics of drying at the drying oven and with micro...Open Access Research Paper
The objective of this work is to contribute to valorization de Nephelium lappaceum by the characterization of kinetics of drying of seeds of Nephelium lappaceum. The seeds were dehydrated until a constant mass respectively in a drying oven and a microwawe oven. The temperatures and the powers of drying are respectively: 50, 60 and 70°C and 140, 280 and 420 W. The results show that the curves of drying of seeds of Nephelium lappaceum do not present a phase of constant kinetics. The coefficients of diffusion vary between 2.09.10-8 to 2.98. 10-8m-2/s in the interval of 50°C at 70°C and between 4.83×10-07 at 9.04×10-07 m-8/s for the powers going of 140 W with 420 W the relation between Arrhenius and a value of energy of activation of 16.49 kJ. mol-1 expressed the effect of the temperature on effective diffusivity.
Micro RNA genes and their likely influence in rice (Oryza sativa L.) dynamic ...Open Access Research Paper
Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs molecules having approximately 18-25 nucleotides, they are present in both plants and animals genomes. MiRNAs have diverse spatial expression patterns and regulate various developmental metabolisms, stress responses and other physiological processes. The dynamic gene expression playing major roles in phenotypic differences in organisms are believed to be controlled by miRNAs. Mutations in regions of regulatory factors, such as miRNA genes or transcription factors (TF) necessitated by dynamic environmental factors or pathogen infections, have tremendous effects on structure and expression of genes. The resultant novel gene products presents potential explanations for constant evolving desirable traits that have long been bred using conventional means, biotechnology or genetic engineering. Rice grain quality, yield, disease tolerance, climate-resilience and palatability properties are not exceptional to miRN Asmutations effects. There are new insights courtesy of high-throughput sequencing and improved proteomic techniques that organisms’ complexity and adaptations are highly contributed by miRNAs containing regulatory networks. This article aims to expound on how rice miRNAs could be driving evolution of traits and highlight the latest miRNA research progress. Moreover, the review accentuates miRNAs grey areas to be addressed and gives recommendations for further studies.
Artificial Reefs by Kuddle Life Foundation - May 2024punit537210
Situated in Pondicherry, India, Kuddle Life Foundation is a charitable, non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to improving the living standards of coastal communities and simultaneously placing a strong emphasis on the protection of marine ecosystems.
One of the key areas we work in is Artificial Reefs. This presentation captures our journey so far and our learnings. We hope you get as excited about marine conservation and artificial reefs as we are.
Please visit our website: https://kuddlelife.org
Our Instagram channel:
@kuddlelifefoundation
Our Linkedin Page:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kuddlelifefoundation/
and write to us if you have any questions:
info@kuddlelife.org
WRI’s brand new “Food Service Playbook for Promoting Sustainable Food Choices” gives food service operators the very latest strategies for creating dining environments that empower consumers to choose sustainable, plant-rich dishes. This research builds off our first guide for food service, now with industry experience and insights from nearly 350 academic trials.
UNDERSTANDING WHAT GREEN WASHING IS!.pdfJulietMogola
Many companies today use green washing to lure the public into thinking they are conserving the environment but in real sense they are doing more harm. There have been such several cases from very big companies here in Kenya and also globally. This ranges from various sectors from manufacturing and goes to consumer products. Educating people on greenwashing will enable people to make better choices based on their analysis and not on what they see on marketing sites.
"Understanding the Carbon Cycle: Processes, Human Impacts, and Strategies for...MMariSelvam4
The carbon cycle is a critical component of Earth's environmental system, governing the movement and transformation of carbon through various reservoirs, including the atmosphere, oceans, soil, and living organisms. This complex cycle involves several key processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and carbon sequestration, each contributing to the regulation of carbon levels on the planet.
Human activities, particularly fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, have significantly altered the natural carbon cycle, leading to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and driving climate change. Understanding the intricacies of the carbon cycle is essential for assessing the impacts of these changes and developing effective mitigation strategies.
By studying the carbon cycle, scientists can identify carbon sources and sinks, measure carbon fluxes, and predict future trends. This knowledge is crucial for crafting policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, enhancing carbon storage, and promoting sustainable practices. The carbon cycle's interplay with climate systems, ecosystems, and human activities underscores its importance in maintaining a stable and healthy planet.
In-depth exploration of the carbon cycle reveals the delicate balance required to sustain life and the urgent need to address anthropogenic influences. Through research, education, and policy, we can work towards restoring equilibrium in the carbon cycle and ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.
Summary of the Climate and Energy Policy of Australia
FutureDAMS Peking University presentation
1. Building Better Dams: the Past,
Present and Future of Dams
Professor David Hulme
Global Development Institute
University of Manchester
www.futuredams.org
www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk
www.mace.manchester.ac.uk
2. • Confession – Not an expert on dams or water management
• Resettlement and the social impacts of development projects
…and lots of help from Bill Adams at Cambridge
• But, I do get fired up about dams – especially when rich
Westerners stop people in poorer countries from having
dams… Nepal!
• Interdisciplinary
• Systems engineers,
Social scientists,
Economists,
Hydrologists and more
3. Dam problems!
Bakalori Dam (Nigeria)
• Construction costs: under-estimated
• Yields: productivity of existing rainfed farming under-estimated,
and predicted yields from irrigated fields over-estimated
• Economic returns:
• predicted value of cash crops assumed commercial processing
available (tomato canning: factory not planned or built)
• Minimal assessment of major downstream impacts-public health
4. FutureDams: How to design dams that
don’t have more costs than benefits
(growth, jobs, social progress,
sustainability, environment)
5. Dams and national development:
Egypt and the Nile Basin
• Economic growth, flood control, irrigation,
electricity, urbanisation, “modernisation”
• Cairo barrages 1843 and 1891
• Aswan Dam 1902 - heightened 1912 & 1934
• 1937 Nile Waters Agreement (94% Egypt)
• Aswan High Dam (1960s)
• 1999 Nile Basin Initiative - NBI (all of the
basin’s countries…except Egypt now)
6. US national
development and
river basin planning
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
1930s Depression: Federal corporation created in 1933
‘…to improve the navigability and to provide for the flood
control of the Tennessee River; to provide for reforestation
and the proper use of marginal lands in the Tennessee
Valley; to provide for the agricultural and industrial
development of said valley; to provide for the national
defense …and for other purposes’.
7. The TVA
• Land management:
o Soil erosion control, reforestation,
changed farming techniques
• River engineering:
o Channelling the Tennessee River,
dam construction
• Power generation
o Hydropower dams
8. The ‘TVA Model’ is exported
• Mekong Committee 1957
o Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam independence 1954
o UN Report 1957, Development of Water Resources in the
Lower Mekong Basin: 5 dams, 90,000km2 irrigation, 13.7 GW
• US Bureau of Reclamation study 1956 and report 1962
o 1976 Indicative Basin Plan
• Interim Mekong Committee 1978 (no Cambodia).
o 1987 Revised Indicative Basin Plan
• Mekong River Commission 1995
9. River basin development in Africa
• 1960s
o Volta River Authority (1961)
o Niger Delta Development Board
(1961)
o Niger River Commission (1964)
• 1970s
o Organisation pour la Mise en
Value du Fleuve Senegal OMVS
(Senegal Basin) 1972
o Tana and Athi Rivers
Development Authority 1974
(Kenya)
• 1980s RBDAs across Nigeria UNEP: GRID Arendal
10. Dams for
development:
Africa 1960s and 1970s
• Volta: Akosombo
• Niger: Kainji, Jebba, Lokoja
• Zambezi: Kariba, Cahorra Bassa,
• Senegal: Manantali, Diama
• Partly OECD foreign aid and big contracts
for OECD engineering companies
11.
12. The benefits of dams
• Power generation
• Water supply
• Irrigation
• Flood control
• Navigation
• Pollution control
(debris, tailings…)
• Recreation
14. Other impacts of dams: downstream
• Hydrology
– flood extent and timing, duration and
slope of the flood recession curve
• Water quality
– temperature, water clarity
• Channel changes
– erosion, channel stability, delta systems
• Ecological change
– aquatic ecosystems, fish, wetlands
• Socio-economic change
– fishing, agriculture, tourism…debt??
natureworldnews.com
15.
16. Dams: good idea or bad idea?
• Preservation vs wise use debates
in USA in early 1900s
• President Theodore Roosevelt and
John Muir meet in Yosemite
National Park
• Massive dam building in USA
• Rise of US environmentalism
17. Dams: good idea or bad idea?
• Successful anti-dam campaign on the
Colorado River in 1940s&1950s by Sierra
Club, Wilderness Society & Readers
Digest
• A deal reached: Glen
Canyon Dam is built - but
not other dams
Airphonona.com
18. The end of dams?
• Dam removal has accelerated in the USA
19. The end of dams?
• 1994 Manibeli Declaration - calls for
moratorium on all World Bank funding for
large dams
• The World Bank’s Social and Environmental
Assessment of Dams project discourages dam
proposals – “safeguards”
• But China, India, Turkey and other G77
countries want to build dams
• What to do..?
20. World Commission on Dams
• 1997 workshop in Switzerland
• International Union for the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and
World Bank
• 35 delegates - ICOLD, NGOs, governments
• Recommended an international commission,
World Commission on Dams (WCD)
• 12 people and a technical secretariat
based in Cape Town.
21.
22. World Commission on Dams
• Final report Dams and
Development launched by
Nelson Mandela
November 2000.
• 7 Strategic Priorities for
dam construction
• 5 key criteria
24. WCD five key criteria
1. Needs assessment: validate needs
for water and energy services
2. Select alternatives: full range of
options – including “no dam”
3. Project preparation: all plans and
agreements in place
4. Project implementation: full
compliance
5. Project operation: adapt to
changing context – continued
participatory processes
25. But the WCD does not fix the problem
• The Report was not acceptable to developing
country governments
– ‘all unanimously agreed that the WCD Report was
biased and could not be accepted’ (Asik K. Biswas
2012 Impacts of Large Dams, p. xvii)
– Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Lao PDR, Nepal,
Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Vietnam
• Too negative about dams and anti-growth
• Too impractical: ‘multi stage negotiated
process too slow’
• Solutions too complex and bureaucratic
• The problems are too complex
26. Now a global boom in hydropower dam construction
Zarfl et al. (2015) Aquatic Sciences 17: 161-170
27. Source : International Energy Agency (2013), via Jamie Skinner
HEP 16% of global electricity generation
Global hydro-electric power production
28. Why is it so hard?
• Costs and benefits are complex
– multidisciplinary planning is hard
• Many impacts are remote from the dam
– Hard to analyze, mitigate, compensate
– Project boundaries narrow and pre-defined
– Finance and construction…and corruption
• Many impacts are delayed
– long term research and monitoring is expensive
– planning is done in a hurry
• River basins cross borders
– institutional/political issues are significant
• Dam impacts interact
– Complex and emergent issues (multi-purpose, generation or storage…)
– Getting more complex – carbon (900Kg CO2 per Kg cement), methane…
29. Methane
• Global reservoir Methane emissions
are significant
- Perhaps as much as from global rice
production or global biomass emissions
• GHG fluxes from reservoirs in future
IPCC budgets and other inventories of
anthropogenic emissions
• Difficult to measure – low intensity
but vast area
BioScience 66: 949–964.2016
30. Future Dams: Design and
Assessment of resilient and
sustainable interventions in water-
energy-food-environment
Mega-Systems
• New dams have the potential to
contribute to Sustainable
Development Goals.
• Poorly designed dams exacerbate
social and political instability,
environmental degradation, debt
31. Future Dams
research questions
1. What’s happening now?
– Who is selecting, designing, and financing dams and systems of dams today?
– What approaches/tools do they use?
– What shapes and incentivises decisions about dam selection & operation?
2. What should be improved?
– What technical and political knowledge is required for new dams to
maximise and appropriately allocate nexus benefits, promote resilient and
sustainable development, and minimise conflict and socio-ecological loss?
– What participatory decision processes need designing/improving?
3. How?
– What skills, approaches, processes, tools and networks will help create a
new generation of engineers, social scientists and policy analysts?
32. Whole system
thinking
• Holistic analysis
• Systems of
dams not single
projects
• Dams as WEFE
or nexus
interventions
• Operation as
well as
construction
34. Academic challenges
• Cross-disciplinarity, multi-disciplinarity, inter-
disciplinarity…but, disciplines are silos?
• Social science research for water management -
engineers, hydrologists, ecologists, economist
• Social science research on water management
-anthropologists, political scientists, geography
• Directly into ‘models’…directly by stakeholder or
participatory processes …indirectly, by public
debate?
• FutureDAMS – Approach=Manual and Model
35. ‘…it is one thing to find fault
with an existing system. It is
another thing altogether, a
more difficult task, to
replace it with an approach
that is better’.
(Nelson Mandela, at the
launch of Dams and
Development in London,
16 November 2000)