Sectoral Activity: Hydropower Strategy & Briefing

Strategy 

The successful implementation of NbS in freshwater restoration relies heavily on collaboration and coordination across sectors due to their interdependencies and shared reliance on healthy ecosystems. Each Sectoral Strategy highlights key connections with others, emphasizing the need for integrated approaches to overcome challenges and leverage opportunities for transformation.

The Hydropower Strategy recognises that barriers are created for a range of functions and therefore are also linked to other sectors, including Agriculture, Insurance, Navigation, and WSS. These sectors need to be also involved in strategic discussions about which barriers are no longer required/economically viable and therefore available for removal. However, the focus of the strategy development (as with the Peat Extraction Sector, for example) was focussed mainly on understanding the overlap between barrier removal and an NbS approach. Identifying how to better consider barrier removal in practice using an NbS approach focussed on discussions within the Hydropower Sector. Therefore, the focus on cross-sectoral working is muted within the Strategy itself.

Briefing

Hydropower is an important source of renewable electricity in the EU. However, hydropower creates barriers to rivers, along with barriers built by other sectors, that have negative consequences for freshwater biodiversity and water and sediment flows. There are occasions where it is not viable for ageing dam infrastructure to be maintained – especially considering climate change trends and predictions – where the damage clearly outweighs the benefits, or where the sector can support removal of other barriers to improve the overall function of the catchment. MERLIN will help share knowledge about when dam removal may be a good option and how the sector can support wider free-flowing-river activities.

Strategy authors: Esther Carmen and Kirsty Blackstock (James Hutton Institute)

Briefing authors: Fanni Nyírő, Esther Carmen, Alhassan Ibrahim, Eva Hernandez Herrero, Anna Bérczi-Siket, Kirsty Blackstock