https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807437115">
 

Abstract

Aging infrastructure and growing interests in river restoration have led to a substantial rise in dam removals in the United States. However, the decision to remove a dam involves many complex trade-offs. The benefits of dam removal for hazard reduction and ecological restoration are potentially offset by the loss of hydroelectricity production, water supply, and other important services. We use a multiobjective approach to examine a wide array of trade-offs and synergies involved with strategic dam removal at three spatial scales in New England. We find that increasing the scale of decision-making improves the efficiency of trade-offs among ecosystem services, river safety, and economic costs resulting from dam removal, but this may lead to heterogeneous and less equitable local-scale outcomes. Our model may help facilitate multilateral funding, policy, and stakeholder agreements by analyzing the trade-offs of coordinated dam decisions, including net benefit alternatives to dam removal, at scales that satisfy these agreements.

Publication Date

11-5-2018

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences

Journal Title

PNAS

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807437115

Document Type

Article

Comments

This is an Open Access article published by National Academy of Sciences in PNAS in 2018, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807437115

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