Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Impacts of Dams
Jeff Opperman, The Nature Conservancy
Flow
Time
High productivity
•Shallow, low velocity water
High productivity •Floodplain vegetation
Rio Laguna
1. Channel form
2. Connectivity
3. Water quality
4. Energy
5. Species
Value of ecosystem services of
various habitat types
Floodplains have second highest
value per ha
Flow
Flow regulation
by dams
Time Time
High productivity
•Shallow, low velocity water
Connectivity lost •Floodplain vegetation
High productivity
Defined ecologically
For river communities and ecosystems
Patterns of flow
Dam Operations – developing and
implementing environmental flows
Spawning habitat
Floodplain fishery
Our basic premise:
“Sustainable hydropower” must be defined and pursued
at large spatial scales, such as a river basin or region
Conservation blueprint,
existing and proposed dams,
Experimental flood on Colorado Upper Yangtze
River, Glen Canyon Dam
Basin-scale approaches to sustainability
Spawning habitat
Environmental
Flows
Floodplain fishery