A Checklist of River Function Indicators for hydropower ecological assessment

Journal Article · Wed Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Science of the Total Environment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.049· OSTI ID:1557494

Pracheil, Brenda May  ^[1]; McManamay, Ryan A.  ^[1]; Parish, Esther S.  ^[1]; Curd, Shelaine L. ^[1]; Smith, Brennan T.  ^[1]; DeRolph, Christopher R.  ^[1]; Witt, Adam M.  ^[1]; Ames, Shannon ^[2]; Day, Mary Beth ^[3]; Graf, Will ^[4]; Infante, Dana ^[5]; McCoskey, Dana N. ^[6]; Rugani, Kelsey ^[3]; Vezina, Corey ^[6]; Welch, Timothy ^[6]; West, Anna ^[3]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Low Impact Hydropower Inst., Lexington, MA (United States)
3. Kearns & West, San Francisco, CA (United States)
4. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
5. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
6. USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)

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 collected from hydropower project studies documented by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the International Hydropower Association, the Low Impact Hydropower Institute, and peer-reviewed scientific literature, our proposed Checklist of River Function Indicators contains 51 indicators in six categories. We have tested the usefulness of the Indicators by applying them to seven hydropower projects documented by FERC. Among the case study projects, 44 of the 51 Indicators were assessed according to the FERC documentation. Although each hydropower project presents unique natural resource issues and stakeholder priorities, the proposed Indicators can provide a transparent starting point for stakeholder discussions about which ecological impacts should be considered in hydropower planning and relicensing assessments.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1557494
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1528645
• Journal Information: Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 687, Issue C; ISSN 0048-9697
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

13 HYDRO ENERGY
Ecological impacts
Hydropower
Ecological indicators