We use satellite, hydrology, and census data from 1990 to 2014 to examine the distributional impacts of dams on cropland productivity and economic development in China. We exploit a county’s river gradient and elevation to deal with the endogeneity of dam location. We find that an additional...

The Klamath River, draining some 12,000 square miles in southern Oregon and northern California, was once the third largest salmon stream on the West Coast, the life force of Native Americans. The river runs 263 miles from headwaters in Oregon and flows through the Cascades to the Pacific Ocean...

The Nile as a transboundary river attracts worldwide attention. 85% of the river originates in Ethiopia. However, Ethiopia has historically been excluded from using this resource for development purposes. Since 2011, Ethiopia has been building a dam on the Blue Nile. However, downstream...

In the 21st century Ghana has seen the revival and construction of dam projects which had previously been stalled for decades as a result of financing constraints and socio-environmental concerns. What has enabled Ghana’s contemporary dam-building revival? What are the risks and benefits? This...

As a nation with highly variable and limited availability of water resources, Zimbabwe relies on a vast and aging water infrastructure stock that requires prompt rehabilitation to better support the water, food, and energy sectors. The country has limited water resources, with much of its area...

The paper assesses social impacts of a mega-dam project (Merowe Dam in Sudan) as perceived by host and affected communities (i.e., upstream, downstream, and relocated residents), which is not commonly seen in the literature. Primary survey and interviews were conducted with 300 residents,...

This paper assesses the economic benefits of 57 World Bank Group-sponsored hydropower dam plant investments. Hydropower dams are among the main sources for producing electricity and the largest renewable source for power generation throughout the world. Hydropower dams are often a lower-cost...

China has become an increasingly important financier of energy infrastructure development in the Global South, especially hydropower projects. Despite an increase in investigations on Chinese models of infrastructure financing in these regions, there is a lack of empirical research on the...

This study aims to assess the net benefit of the kaptai dam on the Karnafuli river in Kaptai, Chittagong,Bangladesh. Kaptai Dam, the only hydroelectricity power source in Bangladesh, provides only 5%electricity demand of Bangladesh. The Dam is located on the Karnafuli River at Kaptai in...

Large dams were central to policy making in Ghana and the rest of Africa in the early postcolonial period as part of the quest for development, framed in terms of the socioeconomic and cultural modernisation that pertained in advanced industrialised countries. Ghana has constructed three large...

Using the 2003 initial impoundment of the world's largest hydroelectric dam as a natural experiment, we assess how rural households with varying endowments adapt differently to the dam-induced water scarcity in the downstream area. In response to a 13\% reduction in rice yields, those who are...

[enter Abstract BodGovernment plays an important role as a well-being capital provider through policies, strategies, or even direct provision to local residents to improve their livelihoods. Pak Mun Dam is one of the most controversial dams in Thailand, and government intervention is needed to...

This working paper presents preliminary conclusions from research carried out in Benishangul Gumuz and Amhara National Regional States of Ethiopia in November 2018 and January 2019. It explores the programme of resettlement of Gumuz farmers and others living at low altitude along the Nile and...

The Trung Son dam is a medium-sized hydropower dam (260 megawatts) that was developed with the aim of achieving social and environmental sustainability. Experience gained from the Trung Son Hydropower Project can provide relevant information for dam projects of a similar size. This report is the...

Dam safety is central to public protection and economic security. However, the world has an aging portfolio of large dams, with growing downstream populations and rapid urbanization placing dual pressures on these important infrastructures to provide increased services and to do it more safely....

As a nation with highly variable and limited availability of water resources, Zimbabwe relies on a vast and aging water infrastructure stock that requires prompt rehabilitation to better support the water, food, and energy sectors. The country has limited water resources, with much of its area...

Full accounting of costs and benefits are essential to policy analysis, but regulations may have effects beyond firms covered by the policy. Considering a policy mandating stream flows below hydroelectric dams, I estimate both direct costs of regulation to regulated firms and spillovers to other...

This paper attempts to use various fuzzy methods to evaluate the Reliability index of a gravity dam. The chosen dam structure is analysed using Fuzzy point estimate method (FPEM), Fuzzy first order second moment method (FFOSM), Fuzzy Random Probabilistic model (FRPM) and a Hybrid model to...

"For almost a decade now, the 13 billion dollar Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project has been a central defining problem in the public life of Newfoundland and Labrador. As the essays collected in Muskrat Falls: How a Mega-Dam Became a Predatory Formation show, the dam's promise of clean...

This book presents the current conflict in the Middle East and North Africa over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the biggest in Africa. The project explains why economic, and to some extent political, survival is at the core of the conflict, specifically between...

This book conceptualises the ongoing hydropower expansion in Southwest China as a socio-political and transnational project transcending the construction of dams. Chapters in this volume are organised around three sections spanning hydropower and resettlement governance, rural livelihoods, and...

The Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is arguably the most controversial dam ever built in India, with over a 100,000 displaced people. Most ousted families in Gujarat were resettled in the late 1980s and early 1990s. All oustees were tribals--a term used in India to cover a list of tribes viewed as...

The development of Maturity Matrices for Institutional Benchmarking of Dam Safety in Indonesia provides a method for assessing the effectiveness of the operation, maintenance, surveillance and emergency preparedness programs adopted by dam authorities. Matrices were developed for dam owners and...

The Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is arguably the most controversial dam ever built in India, with over a 100,000 displaced people. Most ousted families in Gujarat were resettled in the late 1980s and early 1990s. All oustees were tribals—a term used in India to cover a list of tribes viewed...

The study aimed at empirically investigating the influence of Osborne dam on the socio-economic development of ward 23, Makoni District. The research was carried out in three villages Kawadza, Nyatito and Dumba, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Questionnaire, interviews guide,...

An understanding of the spatial variation in the impacts of living near reservoirs, dams, and undevelopable land is important in explaining residential property values. While there is a body of literature on the effects of proximity to dams and reservoirs on housing prices, little known research...

This study estimates and compares the effects of small and large irrigation dams on cropland productivity in South Africa. To this end, a panel data set of South African river basins is constructed. The econometric analysis reveals that although large dams increase cropland productivity...

Hydropower dams have been criticised for their social and environmental implications. There have been attempts to create international social standards for hydropower dam projects, but these standards have had limited impact. This article uses an extended environmental justice framework to make...

More than a hundred hydropower dams have already been built in the Amazon basin and numerous proposals for further dam constructions are under consideration. The accumulated negative environmental effects of existing dams and proposed dams, if constructed, will trigger massive hydrophysical and...