Hydropower development and fish management: a food–water–energy nexus requiring international and multidisciplinary approach

Luiz G. M. Silva; Lee J. Baumgartner; Z. Daniel Deng; Hans-Petter Fjeldstad

doi:10.1071/MFv69n12_ED

EDITORIAL

Next Contents Vol 69(12)

Hydropower development and fish management: a food–water–energy nexus requiring international and multidisciplinary approach

Luiz G. M. Silva ^A ^B ^E , Lee J. Baumgartner ^B , Z. Daniel Deng ^C and Hans-Petter Fjeldstad ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Graduate Program in Ecology (PGE) – Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei (UFSJ), Rodovia MG 443, quilômetro 7, 36420-000, Ouro Branco, MG, Brazil.

^B Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.

^C Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Energy and Environment Directorate, Richland, WA 99352, USA.

^D SINTEF Energy Research, Sem Sælands vei 11, NO-7034 Trondheim, Norway.

^E Corresponding author, Email: luictio@gmail.com

Marine and Freshwater Research 69(12) i-iii https://doi.org/10.1071/MFv69n12_ED
Published: 29 November 2018

The environmental impacts of dams have been recognised globally as one of the major threats for aquatic biota, particularly riverine species (Poff and Schmidt 2016). Indeed, freshwater environments are deemed to be experiencing greater biodiversity decline than terrestrial ecosystems (Dudgeon et al. 2006) in part due to increasing human demand for water. In this sense, dams for hydropower production have gained substantial traction in the balance between freshwater usage and biodiversity conservation, creating various disputes worldwide. For instance, given recent development and the current boom of new dams in mega diverse rivers such as the Amazon, Mekong and Congo (Winemiller et al. 2016), hydropower plants have been recently highlighted as imperilling one-third of freshwater fish worldwide.

This scenario of conflict between hydropower development and fish management and conservation defines the energy–water–food nexus (Poff and Olden 2017). It is also directly related to at least six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Goals 7, 15, 13, 8, 2 and 3 – for details see https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/, accessed 26 September 2018), making this a contemporary topic of global significance. For instance, hydropower development has been considered a key component to meet increasing energy demands associated with economic development and rapid population growth with a renewable energy source (Zhou et al. 2015; Romanelli et al. 2018). In contrast, the threats and impacts on freshwater fish, particularly on migratory and riverine species, from development in this sector have already contributed to the decline of many fish populations (Agostinho et al. 2016). For many rivers and basins around the globe, fish are a primary source of protein, providing food security for the population (Sabo et al. 2017) and declines of this important food resource can severely affect livelihoods, creating challenging environmental and social conflicts that have to be addressed for future development and system sustainability.

Such complex conflicts, involving environmental, social, economic and technological components, require multidisciplinary approaches to (a) provide a comprehensive understanding of the problem and (b) contribute to the development of well-informed decisions and management plans for hydropower and fisheries management globally. In this sense, the International Energy Agency launched the ANNEX XIII – Hydropower and Fish initiative (see https://www.ieahydro.org/annex-xiii-hydropower-and-fish, accessed 26 September 2018) seeking to integrate experts of member countries into discussions to develop a best-practice guidance for future hydropower development and improvements on the operation of current facilities. The ANNEX XIII represents a global collaboration to share knowledge on fish and hydropower interactions. The group has been active for several years and members have been jointly sharing knowledge and experience to help develop practical solutions to these challenging problems.

This special issue of Marine and Freshwater Research demonstrates the significant international effort to systematise and disclose scientific information on fish management and ecology applied to hydropower issues, aiming to provide some guidance for current and future development. The articles in this issue represent an opportunity to increase the understanding of both hydropower impacts on fish and to document mitigation options for various impacts, particularly those associated with migratory movements. The impact of hydropower development on fish movements is long-standing (Nieminen et al. 2017) and it is a primary example of the need to integrate different areas, such as engineering, fish biology, and ecology to develop environmental mitigation approaches (Williams et al. 2012).

The majority of the manuscripts in this special issue are related to studies associated with upstream and downstream passage of fish through hydropower structures, providing evidence that this topic is in the forefront of hydropower and fish management research. This special issue has also been linked to the 1st International Symposium on Hydropower and Fish Management jointly organised with the 2018 International Conference on River Connectivity – Fish Passage 2018 and this may have contributed to the majority of the manuscripts having a fish passage focus. It is interesting to note there is a current trend for research associated with hydropower and fish management that focus on fish passage issues, although it was compelling to see that ~45% of the manuscripts were related to downstream fish passage, an often-neglected topic in hydropower studies, particularly in tropical regions (Pompeu et al. 2015).

The special issue contains 20 articles that will advance knowledge on various aspects of fish and hydropower interactions. These include:

information on the efficiency of fish ladders, or fishways, at hydropower dams to improve passage of upstream-migrating fish (Amaral et al. 2018a; Baumgartner and Wibowo 2018; Bido et al. 2018; Dodd et al. 2018; Fjeldstad et al. 2018; Gutfreund et al. 2018; Meulenbroek et al. 2018);
several key technologies to improve operation of bypass systems to ensure downstream-migrating fish avoid passage through turbines (Amaral et al. 2018b; Fjeldstad et al. 2018; Klopries et al. 2018; Nyqvist et al. 2018);
new and improved monitoring technologies, especially those that improve understanding of factors that lead to injury and mortality (Egg et al. 2018; Silva et al. 2018);
understanding the hydraulic conditions in and around hydropower plants and the effects in fish (Beirão et al. 2018; Boys et al. 2018; Colotelo et al. 2018; Pflugrath et al. 2018; Santos et al. 2018); and
determining long-term ecological impacts of hydropower plants and associated reservoirs (Cowx et al. 2018; Loures and Pompeu 2018; Naughton et al. 2018)

These topics represent significant issues for hydropower developers and the content and solutions presented in these articles will help address key knowledge gaps in both tropical and temperate systems.

We finally acknowledge all the authors and institutions for the great effort undertaking the research and preparing the manuscripts for this special issue. This issue, associated with the 1st International Symposium on Hydropower and Fish Management, will significantly contribute to the literature and offer a systematised volume of information for a broader audience, from researchers to stakeholders, managers and the general public. The editors are grateful to Hydro Tasmania and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for the support to this special issue and for making it available in print for all delegates attending the conference. The scientific systematisation of available information on fish biology and ecology benefits areas under pressure because of rapid hydropower expansion is of paramount importance to inform management decisions and alleviate the impacts on fish.

We hope you will enjoy your reading and we seek your for support to further develop this initiative, potentially through a 2nd International Symposium on Hydropower and Fish Management and a second special issue compilation of manuscripts targeted to cover additional areas research of relevance to hydropower development and fish management.

Conflicts of interest

L. G. M. Silva, L. J. Baumgartner and Z. D. Deng are Associate Editors for Marine and Freshwater Research and all authors are the Handling Editors for this special issue. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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