Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824;
Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Nov 20;115(47):11891-11898. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1809426115. Epub 2018 Nov 5.
Hydropower has been the leading source of renewable energy across the world, accounting for up to 71% of this supply as of 2016. This capacity was built up in North America and Europe between 1920 and 1970 when thousands of dams were built. Big dams stopped being built in developed nations, because the best sites for dams were already developed and environmental and social concerns made the costs unacceptable. Nowadays, more dams are being removed in North America and Europe than are being built. The hydropower industry moved to building dams in the developing world and since the 1970s, began to build even larger hydropower dams along the Mekong River Basin, the Amazon River Basin, and the Congo River Basin. The same problems are being repeated: disrupting river ecology, deforestation, losing aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, releasing substantial greenhouse gases, displacing thousands of people, and altering people's livelihoods plus affecting the food systems, water quality, and agriculture near them. This paper studies the proliferation of large dams in developing countries and the importance of incorporating climate change into considerations of whether to build a dam along with some of the governance and compensation challenges. We also examine the overestimation of benefits and underestimation of costs along with changes that are needed to address the legitimate social and environmental concerns of people living in areas where dams are planned. Finally, we propose innovative solutions that can move hydropower toward sustainable practices together with solar, wind, and other renewable sources.
截至 2016 年，水电在全球可再生能源中处于领先地位，占比高达 71%。这些产能是在 1920 年至 1970 年期间在北美和欧洲建立的，当时建造了数千座大坝。大型水坝在发达国家已不再建设，因为大坝的最佳选址已经开发，而环境和社会方面的考虑使得成本变得不可接受。如今，在北美和欧洲拆除的大坝比新建的还要多。水电行业已转移到发展中国家建设大坝，自 20 世纪 70 年代以来，开始在湄公河流域、亚马逊河流域和刚果河流域建造更大的水电大坝。同样的问题正在重复出现：破坏河流生态、毁林、丧失水生和陆地生物多样性、释放大量温室气体、使数千人背井离乡，以及改变他们的生计，同时还影响到他们附近的食物系统、水质和农业。本文研究了发展中国家大型水坝的激增，以及在考虑是否建造大坝时纳入气候变化的重要性，以及一些治理和补偿方面的挑战。我们还研究了收益的高估和成本的低估，以及需要做出改变，以解决计划建设大坝地区居民的合法社会和环境关切。最后，我们提出了一些创新的解决方案，可以使水电朝着可持续的实践方向发展，同时与太阳能、风能和其他可再生能源相结合。
