Wenzhe Tang and His Colleagues Proposed Holistic Hydropower Scheme for China in Nature

On April 7, 2016, the study from Wenzhe Tang group at Tsinghua University and Colin F. Duffield group at The University of Melbourne achieved important advancement, and their work entitled “Holistic Hydropower Scheme for China”, was published online in Nature. Associate Prof. Tang is the first and corresponding author from School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University. Prof. Duffield group is based at Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne.

Yalong River’s cascade reservoir operation: flood discharging of Ertan Dam(photographed by Wenzhe Tang)

Sustainable hydropower development plays a critical role to reduce the environmental impacts arising from using fossil fuel. In this publication, the authors presented solutions to sustainable hydropower development for China on three governance levels. At international level, China should establish partnering relationships with the neighboring countries to cooperatively manage the transboundary rivers associated with hydropower production, water sharing, environmental sustainability and climate change. China has a wealth of experience and technologies to contribute from its many previous hydropower projects. At the national level, there is a need to measure and understand the cascade effects of dams at river basin scale for optimizing the reservoir operation and environmental protection. Laws and regulations on hydroelectricity pricing and migrants’ compensation standards should be reformed and updated. Inter-regional transfer payments to the local authorities for balancing social and environmental losses of affected areas need to be developed for equitably allocating benefits/rewards among stakeholders. At the project level, more attention should be paid to migrant resettlement, land planning, natural resource preservation, and enhancing input in infrastructure development. Government should help migrants with education, employment, and forming new social networks, without devaluing their livelihoods and social capital. The scheme has both research and policy implications. The approaches can not only help to choose appropriate low-carbon development strategies for China, but also be applicable to global river basin management and hydropower developments, especially in developing countries.

A/Prof. Wenzhe Tang acquired his bachelor degree at Tsinghua University in 1992, and after obtained his Ph.D. degree at The University of Melbourne in 2005, he went back to work at School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University. Prof. Colin F. Duffield is the discipline leader at Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne.

This work was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, and Ministry of Education of China.

The paper links: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v532/n7597/full/532037d.html