IRES: People, power, and rivers: social-ecological dynamics of hydroelectric development in northern Mongolia

IRES：人、电力和河流：蒙古北部水电开发的社会生态动态

基本信息

批准号：
1658251
负责人：
Olaf Jensen
金额：
$ 25万
依托单位：
Rutgers University New Brunswick
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-08-01 至 2020-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1658251&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
IRES People power rivers social

项目摘要

The push for renewable energy has driven a global hydroelectric dam-building boom that has already displaced 40-80 million people worldwide and has had large but unquantified ecological impacts. To better understand the impacts of dam-building, research is needed to integrate direct environmental effects, indirect effects of how dams change the ways people interact with their environment, and the interactions between these two effects. With its first large dam under construction and another planned, Mongolia's Selenge River watershed represents an excellent study site for such an investigation. It is also a compelling site because Northern Mongolia's shifting precipitation patterns and rising air temperatures (which have warmed three times faster than the global average), have made traditional herding a more difficult and economically risky livelihood. Some herders have responded by intensifying their use of other natural resources, including fish. By combining research methods from the social and environmental sciences, and by using high-technology tools as well as field work, 18 U.S. students, working with scientists/mentors from several U.S. institutions and from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, will develop an integrated set of approaches for examining social and ecological dynamics of hydroelectric development. This project will also give U.S. students hands-on experience in working across cultures and in a team-based approach to large complex projects.This IRES project enables students to use multiple approaches to evaluate the impact of dams on the Selenge River's human and natural systems. Among the projects they will undertake are: 1) surveying for critically endangered fish species using analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) shed by fish in the water; 2) estimating the abundance of Taimen, the world's largest salmonid, using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) as a rapid and unobtrusive visual survey platform; 3) conducting swimming performance trials to forecast fishes' ability to utilize fish ladders designed to mitigate dam impacts; 4) interviewing community elders to gauge rates of community change in the past and since dam construction started; 5) interviewing young villagers to understand how dam-building and other factors influence their desire to leave their villages for urban area; and 6) assessing the impacts of possible dam-caused fish declines on foreign sport fisherman (who bring valuable foreign currency to the region) and on Mongolians who increasingly depend on fish for food.

可再生能源的推动驱动了全球水力发电坝建造的繁荣，该繁荣已经流离失所，在全球范围内已经流离失所，并且具有巨大但没有量化的生态影响。为了更好地了解大坝建造的影响，需要进行研究以整合直接的环境影响，大坝如何改变人们与环境的互动方式以及这两种影响之间的相互作用的间接影响。蒙古的Selenge河流域凭借其第一个大型大坝正在建设中，并计划了另一项计划。这也是一个引人注目的地点，因为北蒙古的降水模式和空气温度的上升（比全球平均水平快三倍），这使传统的放牧变得更加困难和经济上风险。一些牧民的回应加剧了他们对包括鱼在内的其他自然资源的使用。通过结合社会和环境科学的研究方法，通过使用高科技工具以及现场工作，有18名美国学生与来自美国几个机构的科学家/导师一起工作，以及蒙古科学院的科学家/导师，将开发一组综合方法，用于检查水力发电开发的社会和生态动力学。该项目还将为美国学生在跨文化和基于团队的大型复杂项目的方法方面的实践经验。该IRES项目使学生能够使用多种方法来评估大坝对Selenge River人类和自然系统的影响。他们将要进行的项目包括：1）通过对水中鱼类脱离的环境DNA（EDNA）分析，对危害濒危鱼类进行测量； 2）估计世界上最大的鲑鱼的丰度，使用无人机（无人机或无人机）作为一个快速且不引人注目的视觉调查平台； 3）进行游泳性能试验，以预测鱼类利用旨在减轻大坝撞击的鱼梯的能力； 4）采访社区长者以衡量过去和大坝建设开始以来的社区变化率； 5）采访年轻的村民，了解大坝建造和其他因素如何影响他们离开村庄前往城市地区的愿望； 6）评估可能被大坝引起的鱼类的影响对外国体育渔民（为该地区带来宝贵的外币）以及越来越依赖鱼类食物的蒙古人的影响。