Ecological footprint analysis of environmental impacts by cascaded exploitation of diversion-type small hydropower: a case study in southwest china

International Symposium on Resource Exploration and Environmental Science

地球科学;生态环境科学

Wang, Zhenhua^1,2,3 ; Li, Qingyun^1,2 ; Huang, Zhuo^1,2 ; Tang, Xianqiang^1,2,3 ; Zhao, Weihua^1,2

Basin Water Environmental Research Department, Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan

430010, China^1

Key Lab of Basin Water Resource and Eco-environmental Science in Hubei Province, Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan

430010, China^2

Collaborative Innovation Center for Geo-Hazards and Eco-Environment in Three Gorges Area, Yichang

443002, China^3

关键词: Cumulative effects;    Ecological Footprint Analysis;    Environmental disturbances;    Net primary productivity;    Small hydro power;    Socio-economic benefits;    Vegetation destruction;    Vegetation protection;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/64/1/012056/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1755-1315/64/1/012056

学科分类：环境科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Cascaded exploitation of diversion-type small hydropower (SHP) offers a source of new energy as well as socioeconomic benefits; however, it inevitably causes environmental disturbance and damage. Previous studies on the cumulative effect of cascaded diversion SHP rarely discussed using quantitative analysis method. In this paper, the ecological footprint analysis approach is proposed to assess the positive and negative impacts of cascaded diversion SHP on environment of a small-scale river in Southwest China. Positive impact is defined as ecological supply footprint (ESF), which refers to vegetation protection by replacing firewood with SHP. Negative impact is defined as ecological loss footprint (ELF), which includes fish and net primary productivity loss, vegetation destruction and soil erosion. With the raising in the number (n>4) of diversion SHP stations, the difference between ELF and ESF increases remarkably, suggesting that the adverse impacts of cascaded diversion SHP accumulate in the study area. Compared with vegetation destruction and soil erosion, the cumulative loss of fish and net productivity is the most important aspect of the adverse impacts which needs more attentions.