Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development
In this paper, as U.S. hydropower development continues to expand, a thorough inventory of potentially relevant environmental metrics will provide a comprehensive and transparent starting point for stakeholders seeking to evaluate the sustainability and environmental effects of this anticipated expansion. To address this need, we conducted a literature review to extract and analyze a swath of environmental metrics related to previous hydropower projects. Our examination of several U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensing documents, several certification documents prepared by the Low Impact Hydropower Institute and the International Hydropower Association, and a set of peer-reviewed journal articles led to creation of a database of > 3000 current environmental metrics related to hydropower projects in 231 locations worldwide. Information recorded for each environmental metric was used to map the comprehensiveness and consistency of environmental measurements gathered across primary categories, dam life cycle stages, spatial scales and locations. We found that a majority of environmental metrics were related to water quantity and water quality, a large number of metrics were related to biota and biodiversity, and relatively few metrics were related to the categories of geomorphology, land cover, connectivity and fragmentation, and infrastructure and design. However, the categories of environmental metrics represented in each type of literature varied significantly. Forty-five subcategories of environmental metrics emerged from our analysis, thereby suggesting a potential envelope of environmental measurements that might be used to improve efficiency in evaluating the potential environmental effects of new U.S. hydropower projects.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1491338
- Journal Information:
- Applied Energy, Journal Name: Applied Energy Journal Issue: C Vol. 238; ISSN 0306-2619
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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