Mitigating the Downstream

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

Adapted from Costanza et al. 1997

Mekong River Fisheries Provide Primary Source
of Protein for 55 million people
 Major Impacts from Dams
Seasonal flow patterns and flow events
Extreme daily flow fluctuations due to peaking
Barrier to migration of fish and other aquatic
species
Captures sediment
Water quality – including temperature, dissolved
oxygen
Hydrologic Alteration
 Flow

Flow
Flow regulation
by dams
Time Time

High productivity
•Shallow, low velocity water
Connectivity lost •Floodplain vegetation
High productivity

High productivity area greatly reduced

Rio Laguna
How to protect important ecosystems
downstream of dams?
 Environmental Flows:
The flow of water in a river or lake that
sustains healthy ecosystems that can
provide benefits and services to people and
nature

Water for people, water for nature

 Environmental Flow

Defined ecologically
For river communities and ecosystems
Patterns of flow
Dam Operations – developing and
implementing environmental flows

• Understanding hydrological alteration:

Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA)
– free software from The Nature
Conservancy
• TNC’s approach and experience
developing and implementing
environmental flows
• Analyzes hydrological characteristics and variations over time
• Calculates 67 hydrological statistics that are ecologically relevant
using daily hydrological data
• Designed to be flexible and easy to use and applicable to various
river systems.
TNC/Corps of Engineers Sustainable Rivers Project
 Mitigating Impacts from Dams
Dam operations are important, but…

…getting the design right is extremely important

 Analysis for dam design
1. How far downstream will alterations to dissolved oxygen
and temperature persist?
2. How far will major fluctuations in amplitude persist (from
daily peaking)?
3. What are the implications for important resources at various
distances downstream?
 Mitigation at scale of a dam
Can potentially address:
• Seasonal patterns of flow and flow events
• Impacts from peaking operations

However, may be limited by operational constraints

More difficult to address:

 Migratory fish and longitudinal connectivity
 Sediment
 Temperature and water quality
 Loss of free-flowing river
Limits to sustainability at scale of dam

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