Evidence-Based Indicator Approach to Identify Environmental Impacts of Cascade Dam Projects: A Case Study of Cascade Dam Projects on the Yangtze River

Abstract

Policies for promoting sustainable development of dam projects in the world have always been an argument due to the negative impacts on ecosystems. How to improve the efficiency of identifying the impacts and main indicators in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process and post environmental impact assessment (PEIA) process is a common topic. Since the rapid dam construction in the past decades, most dam projects in China have turned to operation period. In order to identify the main impacts and provide scientific bases for the decision-making process, we optimized and applied the decision-support prototype (DSP) toolkit on the cascade dam projects on the Yangtze River. Through the optimization of the module and tools, the modified DSP was more applicable for China’s dams. Though the modified DSP cannot replace large-scale assessments for dam projects, it would assist the EIA and PEIA process by identifying the most relevant environmental concerns and knowledge gaps at early stages of negotiation, so that more attention can be focused on subsequent studies and evaluative processes. On the other hand, some new limitations were found in our practice. In response to the limitations, we propose several suggestions: (1) SBQ: to introduce a factor to balance the proportion evaluation result of new developed dams and existing dams in the study; (2) SBQ: to consider more about interactions between cascade dam projects and their impacts on different spatial scales; (3) EEM, extend the parameters for generating EEM from dams in areas outside of the U.S.