A dataset of eco-evidence tools to inform early-stage environmental impact assessments of hydropower development
Description
The datasets described herein provide the foundation for a decision support prototype (DSP) toolkit aimed at assisting stakeholders in determining evidence of which aspects of river ecosystems have been impacted by hydropower. A series of 42 river function indicators were used to characterize divergent aspects of river ecosystems while also serving to consolidate the dimensionality of these complex systems into a manageable number of measures. These indicators were developed from a comprehensive literature review of the environmental impacts of hydropower and are associated with six main categories of impacts to river systems: biota and biodiversity, water quality, hydrology, geomorphology, land cover, and river connectivity. The three tools comprising the DSP toolkit and associated data include: 1) Science-Based Questionnaire (SBQ): A series of structured survey-style 140 questions for understanding impacts of dams on river ecosystems were developed through a global literature review. A spreadsheet program was developed to summarize the results of questions into evidence of dam impacts on the 42 ecological indicators. Output is provided in tabular and graphical/chart formats. 2) Environmental Envelope Model (EEM): The EEM is a model to predict the likelihood of hydropower impacting indicators based on a several variables. The intended use of the EEM is for situations of new hydropower development where results of the SBQ are incomplete or highly uncertain. A dataset containing attributes of dams, reservoirs, and geospatial information on environmental concerns were compiled and combined with data on ecological indicators measured at those sites. The data were used to develop models predicting impacts of dams on ecological indicators. A total of 247 envelopes and weighting factors, representing the individual effect of each variable on each ecological indicator, were developed in a spreadsheet program. 3) River Function Linkage Assessment Tool (RFLAT): The purpose of RFLAT is to examine causal relationships amongst indicators. Based on literature review, a node and edge dataset was developed representing causal relationships (“edges”) between ecological indicators (“nodes)”. Bayes theorem was used estimate conditional probabilities of inter-indicator relationships based on the output of the SBQ. Nodes and edges were imported into R programming environment to visualize ecological indicator networks.
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Please see the following publications: 1) McManamay, R.A., E.S. Parish, C.R. DeRolph, A.M. Witt, W.L. Graf, A. Burtner, (2019) Evidence-based indicator approach to guide preliminary environmental impact assessments of hydropower development. Journal of Environmental Management 2) McManamay, R.A., E.S. Parish, C.R. DeRolph (2019) A dataset of eco-evidence tools to inform early-stage environmental impact assessments of hydropower development. Data in Brief (in review)