In the past thirty years, various hydropower projects, some with a dam height of over 300 m, have been planned and constructed within China. It is inevitable that these will have sizable effects on the environment, an...In the past thirty years, various hydropower projects, some with a dam height of over 300 m, have been planned and constructed within China. It is inevitable that these will have sizable effects on the environment, and it is crucial therefore to reasonably evaluate and control adverse effects. In this paper, the transformities of various items for hydropower projects were systematically analyzed, and an emergy footprint model for the projects was developed based on ecological footprint analyses and emergy theory, so that it can quantitatively evaluate the effects on the environment, both positive and negative, resulting from the whole process of planning, constructing and operating the projects. As an example, the effects of a large-scale hydropower project, the 'LP project', were investigated. The results showed that the hydropower projects have strong positive effects on the environment and can even in the short term balance the emergy footprint appropriation resulting from the construction and operation of the hydropower projects. Finally, suggestions were presented for the design of hydropower projects.展开更多
基金supported by the Ministry of Education Foundation in China (Grant No. 108177)
文摘In the past thirty years, various hydropower projects, some with a dam height of over 300 m, have been planned and constructed within China. It is inevitable that these will have sizable effects on the environment, and it is crucial therefore to reasonably evaluate and control adverse effects. In this paper, the transformities of various items for hydropower projects were systematically analyzed, and an emergy footprint model for the projects was developed based on ecological footprint analyses and emergy theory, so that it can quantitatively evaluate the effects on the environment, both positive and negative, resulting from the whole process of planning, constructing and operating the projects. As an example, the effects of a large-scale hydropower project, the 'LP project', were investigated. The results showed that the hydropower projects have strong positive effects on the environment and can even in the short term balance the emergy footprint appropriation resulting from the construction and operation of the hydropower projects. Finally, suggestions were presented for the design of hydropower projects.
