Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development

Parish, Esther S.; Pracheil, Brenda M.; McManamay, Ryan A.; Curd, Shelaine L.; DeRolph, Christopher R.; Smith, Brennan T.

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.038

Title: Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

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 inmore »« less

Authors:

^[1];

^[1]; Curd, Shelaine L. ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Publication Date:: Fri Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2019

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

OSTI Identifier:: 1491338

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1547865

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Applied Energy

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 238; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0306-2619

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 13 HYDRO ENERGY; dams; environmental indicators; hydropower; renewable energy; sustainability; metrics

Citation Formats


                    Parish, Esther S., Pracheil, Brenda M., McManamay, Ryan A., Curd, Shelaine L., DeRolph, Christopher R., and Smith, Brennan T. Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.038.

Copy to clipboard


                    Parish, Esther S., Pracheil, Brenda M., McManamay, Ryan A., Curd, Shelaine L., DeRolph, Christopher R., & Smith, Brennan T. Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.038

Copy to clipboard


                    Parish, Esther S., Pracheil, Brenda M., McManamay, Ryan A., Curd, Shelaine L., DeRolph, Christopher R., and Smith, Brennan T. Fri .  
"Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.038.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1491338.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1491338,

  title        = {Review of environmental metrics used across multiple sectors and geographies to evaluate the effects of hydropower development},

  author       = {Parish, Esther S. and Pracheil, Brenda M. and McManamay, Ryan A. and Curd, Shelaine L. and DeRolph, Christopher R. and Smith, Brennan T.},

  abstractNote = {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.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.038},

  journal      = {Applied Energy},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 238,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2019},

  month        = {Fri Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2019}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.038

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 12 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Catalog of Environmental Metrics for Hydropower

Technical Report Curd, Shelaine L. ; DeRolph, Christopher R. ; McManamay, Ryan A. ; ...

Evaluating the sustainability of new U.S. hydropower development will necessitate an approach that is comprehensive, transparent and consistent. The ORNL Environmental Metrics for Hydropower (EMH) project team addressed this need by conducting a literature review to extract and analyze a swath of environmental metrics related to hydropower projects. The assessed documents included peer-reviewed journal articles, U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensing documents, and two sets of certification documents from the Low Impact Hydropower Institute and the International Hydropower Association. Review of 117 documents led to creation of a database of > 3000 current environmental metrics related to hydropower projects inmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1459290

Full Text Available
A dataset of eco-evidence tools to inform early-stage environmental impact assessments of hydropower development

Journal Article McManamay, Ryan A. ; Parish, Esther S. ; DeRolph, Christopher R. - Data in Brief

The datasets described herein provide the foundation for a decision support prototype (DSP) toolkit aimed at assisting stakeholders in determining evidence of which aspects of river ecosystems have been impacted by hydropower. The DSP toolkit and its application are presented and described in the article “Evidence-based indicator approach to guide preliminary environmental impact assessments of hydropower development” [1]. Development of the DSP and the output for decision support centralize around 42 river function indicators describing the dimensionality of river ecosystems through six main categories: biota and biodiversity, water quality, hydrology, geomorphology, land cover, and river connectivity. Three main tools aremore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2020.105629
A Checklist of River Function Indicators for hydropower ecological assessment

Journal Article Pracheil, Brenda May ; McManamay, Ryan A. ; Parish, Esther S. ; ... - Science of the Total Environment

Hydropower generation has benefits for societies that seek low-carbon, renewable energy alternatives, but sustainable hydropower production will require an explicit consideration of potential tradeoffs between socioeconomic and environmental priorities. These tradeoffs are typically explored during a formal environmental impact assessment process that can be complex and controversial. The steps taken to address stakeholder concerns through impact hypotheses and field studies are not always transparent. We have designed a Checklist of River Function Indicators to facilitate stakeholder discussions during hydropower licensing and to support more transparent, holistic, and scientifically informed hydropower environmental analyses. Based on a database of environmental metrics collectedmore »« less
Cited by 12
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.049

Full Text Available
Understanding the Environmental Study Life Cycle in the United States Hydropower Licensing and Federal Authorization Process

Journal Article Aldrovandi, Matthew S. P. ; Parish, Esther S. ; Pracheil, Brenda M. - Energies

We analyzed United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) documents prepared for 29 recently licensed hydropower projects and created two novel datasets to improve understanding of the environmental study life cycle, defined here as the process that begins with an environmental study being requested by a hydropower stakeholder or regulator, and ends with the study either being rejected or approved/conducted. Our two datasets consisted of summaries of information taken from (1), study determination letters prepared by FERC for 23 projects that were using the integrated licensing process, and (2), environmental study submittals and issuances tracked and attributed to seven projectsmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123435
A Comparison of the Environmental Effects of Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower

Technical Report Saulsbury, James W.

Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) capabilities are generally characterized as either open-loop or closed-loop. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) defines open-loop PSH as “continuously connected to a naturally flowing water feature,” and closed-loop PSH as “not continuously connected to a naturally flowing water feature.” All the PSH projects constructed in the United States to date are open-loop, so the potential environmental effects of closed-loop systems are not as well documented as the effects of open-loop systems. To address this knowledge gap, the DOE Water Power Technologies Office, under its HydroWIRES Initiative, has prepared this report to: (1) compare the potentialmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1616475

Full Text Available

Similar Records