Up hot creek with a paddle: Characteristics of western US hydropower operators who support environmental flows under climate change
Abstract
Hydropower accounts for 22 percent of all electricity generated in the continental western United States. Although hydropower is a renewable energy source, environmental systems suffer from changes to their natural flow regimes, especially under the conditions most likely to continue under climate change: higher temperatures and more frequent and severe droughts. "Environmental flows" are flows from reservoirs that serve environmental demands. We investigate how each hydropower dam is operated for environmental flows varies based on the individual and institutional decision-making processes of hydropower operators and perceptions of climate change. To understand decision-making and opportunities for improved optimization and hydroeconomic modeling, we sent an online survey to several hundred hydropower operators in western states, using the US Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams and USGS Hydrosheds-10 for sampling (IRB #: UCM 2017-50). Participants were asked about factors that inform individual and institutional decision-making patterns: perceptions of climate change and environmental protection, communication among organizations, and water resource infrastructure and capacity to deliver environmental flows. Preliminary results suggest that hydropower operators have agency in decision-making about environmental flows within a team-based hierarchical structure. The majority of respondents believe that climate change is happening and affecting their regional water quantity and, to a lesser degree, water quality. They also perceive that environmental flows "actually accomplish the goal of improving the environment". These results point to climate change adaptation opportunities in working within the decision space of hydropower operators who believe they are making positive environmental impacts and who believe that climate change is a real risk to their services to both humans and the environment. Our next steps are to augment the quantitative survey with qualitative interviews of selected respondents, to develop key findings to improve modeling efforts, and to share opportunities for improved environmental flows under a climatically different future with operators and agencies.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H13R2021B
- Keywords:
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- 1834 Human impacts;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1884 Water supply;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1894 Instruments and techniques: modeling;
- HYDROLOGY