Central and South America |


Sharing opinions on dam planning


New research has focused on current views and future visions of dam planning in Latin America


LATIN AMERICA HAS A long history of conflicts around dams and their construction. As the region currently witnesses a resurgence in hydropower as a source of renewable energy, new research is asking what could be done differently? And what could be done better?


In their paper published in Sustainability Science,


Above: Large dam in southern Brazil. Over half of participants in this study were Brazilian. According to the authors, this reflects the country’s importance as a major dam builder in the region


Christopher Schulz and Bill Adams from the Department of Geography at Cambridge University in England, invited environmental and social scientists from Latin America to share their opinions and future visions for dam planning in the region. “We aim to understand attitudes towards dam decision-making not framed within the simplified categories of pro and anti-dam, which have often unhelpfully characterised the debate in the past,” the authors explain. “It is important to consider that critical attitudes towards dams may have diverse and even contradictory reasons, which may also influence opinions on appropriate pathways forward. While the present study discusses dam decision-making, it may also offer lessons for understanding divergent visions for sustainable development more generally and the motivations of those that seek to promote sustainable development,” Schulz and Adams continue. Their paper, entitled In Search of The Good Dam:


Contemporary Views on Dam Planning in Latin America, addresses contemporary thinking among social and environmental researchers in the region who have a knowledge of dam planning, design, construction and operation of projects and their impacts. Twenty-one participants were interviewed, ranging from those with over 50 years of professional experience to junior researchers in their mid-20s, and the study explored what their priorities are for design, construction and operation in dam planning.


References In Search of the Good Dam: Contemporary Views on Dam Planning in Latin America by Christopher Schulz and William M. Adams. Published online: 21 October 2020. Sustainability Science (2021) 16:255–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11625-020-00870-2


www.futuredams.org/ how-to-improve-dam- planning-in-latin-america- what-environmental-and- social-scientists-say/


Methodology “While there is a shared understanding that


improvements are necessary, priorities for improvements differ,” Schulz and Adams state. The authors employed Q methodology for their


research. This is a quali-quantitative method that is suitable to explore subjective views on a given topic. The methodology is often used to analyse a range of viewpoints and opinions about often controversial environmental governance issues, achieved by producing a set of statements about a particular topic that interviewees then rank according to their relevance to a research question. The World Commission on Dams produced 26 guidelines for good practice and 33 associated policy principles, among other, broader recommendations. Schulz and Adams reviewed these and translated


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them into a ‘statement format’ that could be used with Q methodology.


“Using Q methodological techniques and a set of policy recommendations inspired by those originally made by the World Commission on Dams, we identified three different viewpoints on priorities for improving dam decision-making among dam researchers in the region,” they stated in their paper. The viewpoints suggest that:


1. Vulnerable people’s rights and needs should be of central concern in improving dam planning. Indigenous people, rural populations and women need to be considered due to their limited access to decision-making structures as opposed to more politically and economically powerful actors.


2. Dam planning should be approached with scientific methods and a holistic vision, studying ecological impacts on rivers early on and optimising the design of benefit-sharing mechanisms for those negatively affected, to ensure that good dams will be built. The authors sate that this viewpoint reflects the most optimistic outlook on the possibility for good dams and that the focus on environmental impacts, dam- affected people and a holistic vision for planning and management should be understood as a ‘scientific’ recipe or pathway towards such ‘good dams’.


3. Invisible problems and failures of the past should receive more attention in dam management before turning to new construction projects. This conveys a sceptical attitude towards dams as a development option.


“Our presentation of three different factors represents one conceptual lens to understand different viewpoints within dam planning and construction from a social and environmental perspective, but evidently, they simplify the debate, and other configurations are conceivable,” Schulz and Adams commented.


Shine a light It has been 21 years since the World Commission on


Dams made recommendations for the improvement of dam decision-making and yet, the authors claim, “there is no consensus on how to move forward, even if overall, these recommendations still resonate with today’s social and environmental dam research community”. Looking beyond dam planning, Schulz and Adams say that the viewpoints identified in their research may also represent more general visions for sustainable development.


“In this sense,” they conclude, “our study shines a light on the motivations of those who seek to inform sustainable development debates and outlines potential pathways forward”. ●


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