JessMatrix2Post

word count: 2,025

DAM THE WORLD


 * THE PROBLEM

Dams across the world are affecting our water systems. They are changing the water discharges from rivers and the use of dams has more effects than those anticipated from global climate change.


 * THE MATRIX

Dams do not simply affect their specific location. “In the United States the interspacing of dammed, drowned, preserved and restored reaches has fragmented every large river by disconnecting once integrated and free-flowing systems.” Dams affect the entire waterway that they are on and the constant interruption of flow causes more effects than we can yet determine, since the age of dam building has finally ended and the damages are just beginning to surface. The issue extends out from just an individual state, since very few rivers are solely contained in one small area, this causes the issue to branch out to other issues. With close to 4,000 dams in the Northeast alone, one quick fix will not work. Too many people are affected by dams, and with the question of ‘water rights’ entering the global political scene are the negative environmental effects outweighed by the ability to access freshwater? An approach presented in a meeting in France argues “The occurrence of negative impacts due to large dams led to serious conflicts about future dams. Nevertheless, water shortages due to climatic conditions and their changes, that are faced by enormous water and energy demands due to rising living standards or a growing world population, seem to require further dam construction. China recently attempted to declare the Three Gorges Dam complete, but are instead in a clean up process to fix the many issues that arose from the gigantic dam. “Dams – especially high dams of 50’ or more – are notorious for flaws in the structure, negative impacts on displaced persons, the loss of antiquities and the flooding of geological treasures.” The new dam is 594’ tall, a mile and half long and is operated by 34 giant turbines. The dam is powered by a lake that can be 600’ deep and is over 400 miles in length. When it first opened, the earth wobbled measurably on its axis and over a million people were displaced from their homes. It is believed that the project will alter the entire ecological system and environment in the area. Not only will it divert the river’s natural course, but it will also reclaim hundreds of acres of land that is the habitat for many species. The project will also cause devastating environmental damage, increasing the risk of earthquakes and landslides.


 * THE STAKEHOLDERS

Dams are built around the world so everyone has a stake in this issue. People who live in areas where there is a high concentration of dams, will see the effects faster than other areas. Both state and the national government have stakes in this issue as well, especially with the upcoming ‘water rights’ issue. Already, the states that hold the reservoirs have an advantage. The result is a form of hydrologic colonialism, whereby the plains, mountains, and southwestern areas export water or water-related services while retaining the environmental costs. The environmental costs of dams in the form of disrupted downstream hydrologic and biotic systems are likely to be greater in these regions than elsewhere.


 * CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION

Even as dams help create electricity and create supplies of freshwater, in time, they also build mountains of crud and toxic materials. “A recent report on US dams by the American Society of Civil Engineers said there are some 85,000 dams in this country and only 11% of those are owned or regulated by the federal government…The report estimated that there are more than 4,000 unsafe or deficient dams in the US.”


 * POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Dams pose a tricky situation to try to solve. The pure removal of those in existence would create untold environmental damage, though leaving them in place is also creating damage and toxic waste collects and new dams are being built. A potential solution could be to create a technology that would help filter the waste that collects and let the particles pass through the dam, but not the water. Also, dams at the size of Three Gorges need to be stopped. The national and global impact of such construction is huge and temporary gain, does not outweigh the loss of entire ecosystems and cities.


 * ADDITIONAL LINKS AND SOURCES

Gray, Dick. “High Dams, Big Problems.” Freshwater Society, 2011. [] Manufactured Landscapes, dir. Jennifer Baichwal, 2006.

Resource Annotation 1

Graf, William L. “Dam Nation: A Geographic Census of American Dams and Their Large-scale Hydrologic Impacts.” American Geophysical Union: Water Resources Research, Vol, 35, No. 4, pages 130-1311, April 1999.

William Graf is an Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education at the University of South Carolina. He received a Ph.D. and majored in physical geography with a minor in water resources management. He has served as an officer in the Geological Society of America and has been President of the Association of American Geographers. His work has been funded by 61 grants from a wide range of sources. He has also received a number of awards from various organizations. The main argument of the text is to show the damaging effects dams have. He argues that disconnecting the free-flowing water systems has disturbed entire ecosystems. He studied the geographic distribution of dams and their impacts. He concluded that Texas has the most dams per state, though the northeast has the most per region with watersheds approximately every 17 miles2. He also studied the river discharges and makes the statement that the effect dams have on this will have a greater effect than anything anticipated from global climate change in the near future. He also looks at the amount of storage per person in each of these areas.


 * Trade-off between economic and environmental benefits and costs of dams have led to the retirement of many small structures and plans for the removal of some large ones.
 * The result is a form of hydrologic colonialism, whereby the plains, mountains, and southwestern areas export water or water-related services while retaining the environmental costs. The environmental costs of dams in the form of disrupted downstream hydrologic and biotic systems are likely to be greater in these regions than elsewhere.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn2|[2]]]
 * The construction and operation of dams has already had greater hydrologic and ecologic impacts on American rivers than any changes that might reasonably be expected from global climate changes in the near future.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn3|[3]]]

The argument helps to strengthen my research focus by showing the effects of dams in the United States. He also shows that the effects of dams are only now appearing since the dam building era is finally over and we can start to see the lasting effects of the effort. He says that to fix some of the issues, we need to retire dams or at least change the way in which they operate.

I used his research on the regional spread of dams across the United States as well as his points about how dams disconnect a once free-flowing and integrated system.

Resource Annotation 2

Petersson, E. “Sustainability of Dams-An Evaluation Approach.” EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6-11 April 2003, abstract #6965. []

If E. Petersson is the same person as E. James Petersson then he is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. If not then it is possible that he works for the United States government possibly in the Astrophysics sectors. There is not enough information regarding his person online to tell.

The main topic is that though there are negative environmental effects that are caused by dams, they may be necessary in order to maintain access to the amount of water the country needs. If fact, he argues that due to the rise in living standards, it may be necessary to construct more dams, but to hopefully make these more sustainable. He uses a report from the World Commission of Dams to show the complex relationship between dams and ecology. He also investigates computer based decisions in relation to dam construction. He also shows that water shortages will spur the construction of new dams.


 * Situated in the stream bed of a river, dams and reservoirs interrupt the natural hydrological cycle. They are very sensitive to all kinds of changes in the catchment, among other global impacts on land use, climate, settlement structures or living standards.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn4|[4]]]
 * The occurrence of negative impacts due to large dams led to serious conflicts about future dams. Nevertheless, water shortages due to climatic conditions and their changes, that are faced by enormous water and energy demands due to rising living standards or a growing world population, seem to require further dam construction.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn5|[5]]]
 * To improve the sustainability of future dams and avoid the mistakes of the past, the planning procedures for dams have to be adapted.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn6|[6]]]

The argument admits that there is an issue but proposes that it is not as immediate as the possibility of running out of water. For once, the precautionary principle in action.

I use both the details of illustrating the negative effects of big dams as well as the alternative that having water reservoirs could become useful in the coming years.

Resource Annotation 3

Tillou, Susan Lynne and Yuri Honda. “Three Gorges Dam.” TED Case Studies, 1996. []

The TED Case Studies is an online journal the publishes articles on globalization that are not trade or economic in nature. Tillou and Honda are writers and researchers.

One of the main goals in constructing the Three Gorges Dam is to create enough energy to keep up with China’s economic growth. The dam will produce 40% more energy than the top currently operating dam. Another advantage of the dam is that it will help switch energy sources away from coal which will help the environment. The issue is that the overall toll of the environment is huge. Over a million people will have to be resettled from farmlands to less desirable locations to make room for the giant reservoir. Though the issue itself is domestic, it has developed global concern for the effects of the project. The day they opened the dam, the world wobbled measurably on its axis. The argument is created by looking into the history of the legislature behind the dam and by investigating the stakeholders and larger impact of the project.


 * Chinese officials estimate that the reservoir will partially or completely inundate 2 cities, 11 counties, 140 towns, 326 townships, and 1351 villages.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn7|[7]]]
 * It is believed that the project will alter the entire ecological system and environment in the area. Not only will it divert the river’s natural course, but it will also reclaim hundreds of acres of land that is the habitat for many species. The project will also cause devastating environmental damage, increasing the risk of earthquakes and landslides.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn8|[8]]]
 * The project will have a devastating ecological impact. The dam will alter the natural environment, and therefore, an almost infinite number of species will be affected by the project. The endangered species affected by the project include the Giant Panda, Chinese Tiger, Chinese Alligator, the Yangtze Dolphin, the Chinese Sturgeon, and the Siberian Crane. In addition, the project requires extensive logging in the area.[[file:///C:/Users/Jess/Documents/Sustainability%20Problems/Matrix%201_DAM%20THE%20WORLD.docx#_ftn9|[9]]]

This project is a case study of a dam taken to an extreme. Yet, from the extremes we can see the immediate effects of the main problem. The environmental impact of this project is far reaching and will have impacts for hundreds of years. This shows that beyond just changes within the river bed, dams have wider environmental impacts. The text describes a scenario where the effects of a number of small dams in the same location would have had much less of a wide spread and dangerous environmental impact than the one huge dam. This could pose an alternative, though does not eliminate dam construction entirely. I also use in my presentation information about the Three Gorges Dam that I gleaned from this essay.

 Graf, William L. “Dam Nation: A Geographic Census of American Dams and Their Large-scale Hydrologic Impacts.” American Geophysical Union: Water Resources Research, Vol, 35, No. 4, pages 130-1311, April 1999, 1305. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ibid, 1308. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ibid, 1309. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Petersson, E. “Sustainability of Dams-An Evaluation Approach.” EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6-11 April 2003, abstract #6965. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ibid <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ibid <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Tillou, Susan Lynne and Yuri Honda. “Three Gorges Dam.” TED Case Studies, 1996. [], 2. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ibid, 2-3. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ibid, 7.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Graf, William L. “Dam Nation: A Geographic Census of American Dams and Their Large-scale Hydrologic Impacts.” American Geophysical Union: Water Resources Research, Vol, 35, No. 4, pages 130-1311, April 1999, 1305. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Petersson, E. “Sustainability of Dams-An Evaluation Approach.” EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6-11 April 2003, abstract #6965. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Gray, Dick. “High Dams, Big Problems.” Freshwater Society, 2011. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Tillou, Susan Lynne and Yuri Honda. “Three Gorges Dam.” TED Case Studies, 1996. [], 7. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Graf, William L. “Dam Nation: A Geographic Census of American Dams and Their Large-scale Hydrologic Impacts.” American Geophysical Union: Water Resources Research, Vol, 35, No. 4, pages 130-1311, April 1999, 1308. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Gray, Dick. “High Dams, Big Problems.” Freshwater Society, 2011. []