TY - JOUR A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Worni, Raphael A1 - Huggel, Christian A1 - Stoffel, Markus A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Uncertainty in the Himalayan energy–water nexus BT - estimating regional exposure to glacial lake outburst floods JF - Environmental research letters : ERL N2 - Himalayan water resources attract a rapidly growing number of hydroelectric power projects (HPP) to satisfy Asia's soaring energy demands. Yet HPP operating or planned in steep, glacier-fed mountain rivers face hazards of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that can damage hydropower infrastructure, alter water and sediment yields, and compromise livelihoods downstream. Detailed appraisals of such GLOF hazards are limited to case studies, however, and a more comprehensive, systematic analysis remains elusive. To this end we estimate the regional exposure of 257 Himalayan HPP to GLOFs, using a flood-wave propagation model fed by Monte Carlo-derived outburst volumes of >2300 glacial lakes. We interpret the spread of thus modeled peak discharges as a predictive uncertainty that arises mainly from outburst volumes and dam-breach rates that are difficult to assess before dams fail. With 66% of sampled HPP are on potential GLOF tracks, up to one third of these HPP could experience GLOF discharges well above local design floods, as hydropower development continues to seek higher sites closer to glacial lakes. We compute that this systematic push of HPP into headwaters effectively doubles the uncertainty about GLOF peak discharge in these locations. Peak discharges farther downstream, in contrast, are easier to predict because GLOF waves attenuate rapidly. Considering this systematic pattern of regional GLOF exposure might aid the site selection of future Himalayan HPP. Our method can augment, and help to regularly update, current hazard assessments, given that global warming is likely changing the number and size of Himalayan meltwater lakes. KW - Himalayas KW - glacial hazards KW - glacial lake outburst floods KW - hydropower KW - water resources Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074005 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 11 PB - IOP Publ. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Worni, Raphael A1 - Huggel, Christian A1 - Stoffel, Markus A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Uncertainty in the Himalayan energy-water nexus: estimating regional exposure to glacial lake outburst floods JF - Environmental research letters N2 - Himalayan water resources attract a rapidly growing number of hydroelectric power projects (HPP) to satisfy Asia's soaring energy demands. Yet HPP operating or planned in steep, glacier-fed mountain rivers face hazards of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that can damage hydropower infrastructure, alter water and sediment yields, and compromise livelihoods downstream. Detailed appraisals of such GLOF hazards are limited to case studies, however, and a more comprehensive, systematic analysis remains elusive. To this end we estimate the regional exposure of 257 Himalayan HPP to GLOFs, using a flood-wave propagation model fed by Monte Carlo-derived outburst volumes of >2300 glacial lakes. We interpret the spread of thus modeled peak discharges as a predictive uncertainty that arises mainly from outburst volumes and dam-breach rates that are difficult to assess before dams fail. With 66% of sampled HPP are on potential GLOF tracks, up to one third of these HPP could experience GLOF discharges well above local design floods, as hydropower development continues to seek higher sites closer to glacial lakes. We compute that this systematic push of HPP into headwaters effectively doubles the uncertainty about GLOF peak discharge in these locations. Peak discharges farther downstream, in contrast, are easier to predict because GLOF waves attenuate rapidly. Considering this systematic pattern of regional GLOF exposure might aid the site selection of future Himalayan HPP. Our method can augment, and help to regularly update, current hazard assessments, given that global warming is likely changing the number and size of Himalayan meltwater lakes. KW - hydropower KW - water resources KW - glacial hazards KW - glacial lake outburst floods KW - Himalayas Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074005 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 11 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Ryan, Marie A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Topographic and seismic constraints on the vulnerability of himalayan hydropower JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - Plain Language Summary The 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal caused severe losses in the hydropower sector. The country temporarily lost similar to 20% of its hydropower capacity, and >30 hydropower projects were damaged. The projects hit hardest were those that were affected by earthquake-triggered landslides. We show that these projects are located along very steep rivers with towering sidewalls that are prone to become unstable during strong seismic ground shaking. A statistical classification based on a topographic metric that expresses river steepness and earthquake ground acceleration is able to approximately predict hydropower damage during future earthquakes, based on successful testing of past cases. Thus, our model enables us to estimate earthquake damages to hydropower projects in other parts of the Himalayas. We find that >10% of the Himalayan drainage network may be unsuitable for hydropower infrastructure given high probabilities of high earthquake damages. KW - natural hazards KW - hydropower KW - landslides KW - Himalaya Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079173 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 45 IS - 17 SP - 8985 EP - 8992 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yaka, Özge T1 - Justice as relationality BT - Socio-ecological justice in the context of anti-hydropower movements in Turkey JF - Die Erde : journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin ; Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin N2 - By introducing a notion of socio-ecological justice, this article aims to deepen the relationship between environment and justice, which has already been firmly established by environmental justice movements and scholarship. Based on extensive fieldwork on local community struggles against small-scale run-of river hydropower plants in Turkey, it expands the justice frame of environmental justice scholarship by going beyond the established conceptions of environmental justice as distribution - of environmental hazards and benefits, recognition and representation. Drawing on ethnographical fieldwork conducted in the East Black Sea region of Turkey, the article introduces the notion of socio-ecological justice to translate the relationality of the social and the ecological, of human life and non-human world, to the vocabulary of justice. It aims to extend the strictly humanist borders of social justice by maintaining that our intrinsic and intimate relations with the non-human world are an essential part of our well-being, and central to our needs to pursue a fair, decent life. It also seeks to contribute to the broader debate to facilitate a 'progressive composition' o f a common, more-than-human world. N2 - Durch die Einführung des Begriffs der sozio-ökologischen Gerechtigkeit will dieser Artikel die Beziehung zwi-schen Umwelt und Gerechtigkeit vertiefen, die von der Bewegung sowie seitens der Wissenschaft für die ‚Umwelt-gerechtigkeit‘ bereits fest etabliert wurde. Auf der Grundlage umfangreicher Feldforschungen zu den Kämpfen lokaler Gemeinschaften gegen kleine Laufwasserkraftwerke in der Türkei erweitert er den Gerechtigkeitsrah-men der Umweltgerechtigkeitsforschung, indem er über die etablierten Vorstellungen von Umweltgerechtigkeit als Verteilung – von Umweltgefahren und -nutzen, Anerkennung und Repräsentation – hinausgeht. Ausgehend von ethnographischen Feldforschungen, die in der Ost-Schwarzmeer-Region der Türkei durchgeführt wurden, führt der Artikel den Begriff der sozio-ökologischen Gerechtigkeit ein, um die Relationalität des Sozialen und des Ökologischen, des menschlichen Lebens und der nicht-menschlichen Welt in das Vokabular der Gerechtigkeit zu übersetzen. Er zielt darauf ab, die streng humanistischen Grenzen der sozialen Gerechtigkeit zu erweitern, indem er behauptet, dass unsere intrinsischen und intimen Beziehungen mit der nichtmenschlichen Welt ein we-sentlicher Bestandteil unseres Wohlergehens und von zentraler Bedeutung für unsere Bedürfnisse nach einem fairen, menschenwürdigen Leben sind. Er versucht auch, einen Beitrag zur breiteren Debatte zu leisten, um eine ‚progressive Zusammensetzung‘ einer gemeinsamen, mehr als menschlichen Welt zu erleichtern. KW - socio-ecological justice KW - environmental justice KW - water struggles KW - hydropower KW - Turkey Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2020-481 SN - 0013-9998 SN - 2749-9987 VL - 151 IS - 2-3 SP - 167 EP - 180 PB - Gesellschaft für Erdkunde CY - Berlin ER -