The document discusses the International Hydropower Association (IHA) and its Sustainability Assessment Protocol (SAP) for evaluating hydropower projects. It also describes various methods for conducting environmental impact assessments (EIA), including checklists, matrices, networks, overlays, and geographical information systems (GIS). The matrix method involves listing project actions and potential environmental impacts to identify interactions. Overlays and GIS involve mapping environmental features and project plans to predict impacts. The document concludes that IHA's SAP and EIA methods provide tools for sustainable hydropower development and measuring environmental changes.

1. Presentation
On
IHA, SAP, Methods and Models of EIA
Prepared By:-
ANIRUDDHA SINGHA (184104602)
Water Resource and Management Engineering
Indian Institute ofTechnology Guwahati

2. INTERNATIONAL HYDROPOWER
ASSOCIATION (IHA)
• The IHA is a non-profit membership organization committed to
advancing sustainable hydropower;
• Formed under the guidance of UNESCO in 1995 as a forum to
promote and disseminate good practice about hydropower;
• The membership of IHA today includes more than 100
organizations as well as individual members;
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3. SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT
PROTOCOL (SAP)
• In order to provide guidance and assessment tools for hydropower
sector, IHA released Hydropower Sustainability Guidelines and
Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol in 2004 and 2006
respectively.
• It is a tool for assessing projects across a range of social,
environmental, technical and economic criteria;
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4. PROTOCOL STRUCTURE
• The Protocol comprises five documents –the Background document and
four assessment tools for the different stages of the project life cycle.
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5. APPLICATION OF SAP
• SAP has been developed for a broad range of potential applications all in the interests of
lifting sustainability performance for hydropower developments and operations.
• Now the SAP has been applied in India.The 510 MW TeestaV hydroelectric project was
constructed in the Eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim in India between the year 2000 and
2008;
• The report gave theTeestaV project mostly 4 and 5 scores in the Operation Stage
guideline categories
Fig:- Construction of TeestaV
Dam, Sikkim, India, 2008
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6. WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ASSESSMENT (EIA)?
• Tool to identify environmental, social and economic impacts
of a project prior to decision making – UNEP;
• In India, started in 1978-79 by river valley project.
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7. PREDICTION OF IMPACTS -
MODELS
• Physical models – representation of the reality in a reduced scale, simulating
processes. (E.g..Wind tunnels on coastal area physical models that simulate waves);
• Visual models – elaboration of images that represent the environment before and
after the development of a project and its alternatives. It can also address the timing
dimension (e.g., seasonal changes, vegetation growth);
• Mathematical models- Maths or statistic simulations applied to the deterministic
or probabilistic calculation, based on quantitative values;
• Cartographic models- representation of reality that will be affected by the project
through maps or charts. Cartographic overlaps enable impact predictions.
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8. METHODS OF EIA
• Ad hoc method
• Checklists Method
• Matrix Method
• Network Method
• Overlays Methods
• GIS Method
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9. AD HOC METHOD
• Simple method based on subjective environment impacts on broad aspects;
• Ad hoc method is useful when time constraints and lack of information
require that the EIA must rely exclusively on expert opinion;
• It provides minimal guidance for total impact assessment while suggesting
the broad areas of possible impacts and the general nature of these
possible impacts;
• When more scientific methods are available, it is not recommended.
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10. CHECKLIST METHOD
• Checklist means a listing of potential Environmental Impacts;
• This method is done to assess the nature of the impacts i.e. its
type such as adverse /beneficial, short term or long term , no effect
or significant impact, reversible or irreversible etc.
• It doesn’t distinguish between direct and indirect impacts.
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11. MATRIX METHOD
• Matrix and its variants provide us a framework of interaction of
different actions activities of a project with potential EI caused by
them;
• A simple interaction matrix is formed where project actions are
are listed along one axis i.e. vertically and EI are listed along the
other side i.e. horizontally.
• It is difficult to distinguish between direct and indirect impacts.
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12. IMPACT IDENTIFICATION MATRIX (EXAMPLE)
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13. NETWORK METHOD
• Network Method identifies the pathway of an impact using a series of networks
between a proposed action and the receptor of an impact;
• It attempts to recognize a series of impacts that may be triggered by a project
action.
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14. OVERLAYS METHOD
• Rely on a set of maps of a project area’s environmental characteristics
covering physical , social, ecological, aesthetic aspects;
• Separate mapping of critical environmental features at the same scale as
project's site plan, e.g. wetlands, steep slopes, soils, floodplains,bedrock,
outcrops, wildlife habitats, vegetative communities, and
cultural resources;
• Older Technique: environmental features are mapped on transparent
plastic in different colors;
• NewerTechnique: Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
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15. GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
SYSTEM (GIS)
• Geographical Information System (GIS) are computer systems that can store,
integrate, analyze and display spatial data;
• The results of EIA correspond to compressed information to synthesize in a
small number of descriptors the complex and diversified universe that has been
analyzed. In a GIS, the improvements in the communicability of the results are
associated with the use of images, which represent information in a compact way,
of easier comprehension.
• GIS uses layers called “themes”, to overlay different types of information and
each theme represents a category of information such as roads, vegetation,
settlements, forest cover, etc. 14

16. FIG:- OVERLAPPING OF SEVERAL LAYERS OF GIS 15

17. CONCLUSION
• The Hydropower Sustainability Guide and Hydropower Sustainability Assessment
Protocol proposed by IHA represent the latest knowledge and understanding of
the international hydropower sector in sustainable hydropower development;
• The simple techniques of EIA such as impact identification, prediction ,evaluation
are used for measuring environment variables and construction of a number of
indices to describe changes in environmental inventory.
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18. REFERENCES
1. https://www.hydropower.org/our-vision ;
2. http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/environment/role-of-remote-sensing-and-gis-in-
environmental-impact-assessment-eia/27476 ;
3. The HSAP:Weakening Global Dam Standards;
https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/hsapfactsheetfinal.pdf
4. Sahzabi H.Y. (2004),“Application of GIS in the Environmental Impact Assessment of
Sabalan Geothermal Field”, Iran Energy Efficiency Organization (SABA),Tehran, Iran;
5. Wang Q. andYangT. (2011),“Sustainable hydropower development : International
perspective and challenges for China”, IEEE, Hangzhou, China.
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