Managing forest ecosystem services for hydropower production |
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| Institution: | 1. Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA;2. Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, USA;3. Natural Capital Project, Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, USA;4. The World Bank, USA;5. Department of Forests, Government of Himachal Pradesh, India;1. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia;2. Reef Check Indonesia, Jalan Tukad Balian Gang 43 No. 1A, Renon, Bali, Indonesia;3. School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada;4. Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia;1. Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO, USA;2. Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Program, The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA;3. Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, Raleigh, NC, USA;1. Department of Natural Resources, TERI School of Advanced Studies, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, India;2. Chair of Silviculture, Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79085 Freiburg, Germany |
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| Abstract: | In many countries, hydropower development is rapidly becoming a focus of green growth policies. This represents a significant opportunity for ecosystem services-based land management that integrates environmental and development goals to benefit the hydropower sector and support economic growth. In this study, we present an approach for targeting ecosystem-provision investment in hydropower catchments coupled with hydrologic modeling to quantify the benefits of soil and water conservation activities. We demonstrate the application of this approach in five hydropower facility catchments in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The results show that there is a high potential for targeted soil and water conservation to increase sediment retention services that benefit hydropower facilities (up to a 44% reduction in sediment transported from uplands into streams), although this benefit is distributed non-uniformly across catchments and levels of investment. The extent to which services can be improved is strongly driven by current land use and management practices that impact how and where conservation activities can be located. Iterative use of the method described here, in a process of stakeholder engagement and capacity-building, enables policy makers to determine the optimal mix of land management strategies and budget allocation to maximize service improvements that support hydropower production. |
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| Keywords: | Hydropower Ecosystem services Sediment retention Water yield Himachal Pradesh India |
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