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Reviewing Benefits and Costs of Hydropower Development Evidence From the Lower Mekong River BasinIn this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of hydropower development in the Mekong River Basin. We compare four major reports—the Mekong River Commission's (MRC's) Basin Development Plan Programme, Phase 2 (BDP2), the Strategic
Environmental Assessment of Hydropower on the Mekong Mainstream (SEA), the Study on the Impacts of Mainstream Hydropower on the Mekong River (MDS), and the MRC's recent council study (CS)—in order to provide the basis for a comparative analysis of the major impact evaluation literature on mainstream dam construction in the Mekong River Basin for the period of 2010–2018. The primary objective of the review is to identify points of agreement, disagreement, inconsistency, and knowledge gaps. Both Mekong River Commission reports (BDP2 and CS) suggest extensive economic benefits for proposed hydropower development, whereas the SEA and MDS indicate that the net impact would be negative. The projected impacts of hydropower development on fisheries, sediment flows, and ecosystems vary widely both in economic and biophysical terms. However, all four reports point to decreased food security and loss of local livelihoods for millions of people as major concerns related to dam development. While considerable resources have been devoted to producing these important studies, the lack of standardization across reports, especially assumptions and methodologies for economic impacts, frustrates efforts at meaningful comparison of their findings and precludes the prospect of clear analytical outcomes or policy impacts.
Document ID
20230000896
Acquisition Source
2230 Support
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Apisom Intralawan ORCID
(Mae Fah Luang University Chiang Rai, Thailand)
Alex Smajgl ORCID
(Mekong Region Futures Institute Bangkok, Thailand)
William McConnell
(Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan, United States)
Daniel B Ahlquist
(Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan, United States)
John Ward ORCID
(Mekong Region Futures Institute Bangkok, Thailand)
Daniel B Kramer ORCID
(Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan, United States)
Date Acquired
January 19, 2023
Publication Date
April 11, 2019
Publication Information
Publication: WIREs Water
Publisher: Wiley
Volume: 6
Issue: 4
Issue Publication Date: July 1, 2019
e-ISSN: 2049-1948
Subject Category
Economics and Cost Analysis
Report/Patent Number
NIHMS1652880
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80NSSC18K1134
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80NSSC17K0259
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Portions of document may include copyright protected material.
Technical Review
Professional Review
Keywords
Cumulative impact assessment
Economic impacts of hydropower
Hydropower
Lower Mekong River Basin
Transboundary water management
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