Study - Undammed Rivers Best Able To Withstand Global Warming Effects (Sorry, Australia, US!)

A new study of major river systems worldwide predicts that waterways that have not been dammed are more likely to withstand the effects of climate change. A network of scientists from Germany, Sweden, the United States and Australia studied 200 of the world's major rivers, including the Nile, Amazon, Yangtze and Mississippi rivers.

The Climate Change and the World's River Basins report has been published online by the Ecological Society of America. Monash University's Professor Sam Lake says the predictions are grim for Australia's dwindling Murray River. "So the Murray, for example, we predicted between 1960 to 2050, that the Murray River system - dam-impacted as it is - would probably suffer about a 15 per cent decrease in water availability, let alone what's already been extracted," he said. "It would effect the people in the Murray-Darling Basin and the people of Adelaide."

The scientists are calling on government agencies around the world to act now to minimise the effects of climate change. The global study has found that nearly 1 billion people live in river basins where management will be needed to counter the effects of climate change. Professor Lake says rivers that are already impacted by damming will need far greater management than those that are free-flowing. "If you are going to have a decrease in the water availability, you may want to buy up areas of the floodplain to allow the floodplain to be restored," he said. "You may want to modify dam outlets to produce high quality water and limit extraction. "You may want to increase water retention in the catchment by allowing more increased filtration and retention of water and uplands and wetlands."

Professor Lake says the wild rivers of northern Australia are likely to better withstand the effects of climate change than those in the south.

EDIT

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/03/2108152.htm?site=nsw

is not dammed. Glad of that.

Hemmed-In-Hollow - always worth the hike!

:toast:

The lower Mississippi is not, it is just to big. The Lower Mississippi is defined as below Cairo Illinois, where the Ohio Joins the Mississippi (The Missouri joins the Mississippi 50 miles North at St. Louis). The Ohio is the biggest tributary to the Mississippi, the Missouri is #2, with the Red River coming in as #3 (Please note this is from memory, I did a quick search but could not find a cite on the water volume of these four Rivers).

Lengths of Major Rivers:
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/riversofworld.html

Information of US Rivers:
http://www.usrivers.info/Rivers.asp

Had NO idea the Ohio was dammed.

Just to name two affect the Ohio, indirectly, the Youghiogheny River dam near Confluence PA, the Allegheny dam near Kinzua PA. Dams exist on the other tributaries, the Tennessee River for Example (A tributary of the Lower Ohio)

http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/nav/ohioback.htm

Here is a list of the Lock and Dams in the Pittsburgh District:
http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/nav/nav.htm

Map of the Flood Control dams on the tributaries of the Upper Ohio:

http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/rec/lakes/damlakes.htm

"Pittsburgh District’s 26,000 square miles include portions of western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio, western Maryland and southwestern New York. Our jurisdiction includes more than 328 miles of navigable waterways, 23 navigation locks and dams, 16 multi-purpose flood control reservoirs, 42 local flood protection projects and other projects to protect and enhance the Nation’s water resources, infrastructure and environment. "

Note that is just the upper Ohio. Most Flood control dams are NOT on the Ohio proper, such flood control Dams are all on tributaries, but locks and dams do exist on the Ohio.

One last comment, if you look at the map above, you will see the "Pittsburgh District" comes within 20 miles of Lake Erie. The reason for this is simple, the Great Lakes get very little water from the US. Outside of Michigan, almost all water flows SOUTH. THe reason for this is during the end of the Last Glacier period the Glacier block any flow north, east or west. Water had to flow SOUTH. The Glaciers ended about the area of the Great Lakes. As the Glacier melted, the water flow south increased, making the river beds even deeper. Finally the Great Lakes formed as the Glaciers continued their retreat and broke through to each other and the St Lawrence. Thus the Great Lakes get about 90% of their water from Canada, very little from the US (Outside of Michigan).

What this means is in the Mid east States (Ohio to Minnesota) almost all the area is Drained into the Ohio or the Upper Mississippi (Which drains even parts of Canada west of Superior).

That Johnstown thing was a mess. Steep-walled valleys make for nasty floods there.

The Conemaugh Dam is to protect Pittsburgh NOT Johnstown. The Conemaugh forms in Johnstown with the conjunction of the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek Rivers. Flows through the Conemaugh River gap, the largest Gap in the Eastern US, till it mergers with Loyalhanna Creek at Saltsburg Pa to form the Kiskiminetas River. The Kiskiminetas River flows into the Allegheny River near Freeport PA which in turn merges with the Monongahela in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio.

As you can see the Conemaugh is a small but important source of Water for the Ohio, which is why the Conemaugh Dam was built in the first place. Furthermore the Conemaugh Dam is rarely filled, it fills up about once a year, sometime 2-3 times a year, during time of high snow melt and/or heavy Rain. The rest of the time it holds very little water.

The interesting things about the Conemaugh Dam,, is how the water is released. The water is released in conjunction with Kinzu dam on the Upper Allegheny River. The reason for this is the huge amount of Acid Mine Run off from the Hundreds of abandoned coal mines in the Conemaugh River Water Shed. Most were mined in the 1800s and many we have no record of, we just see the mine discharge. This mine discharge makes the Conemaugh unfit for fish (Some tributaries are, but many of them are also affected by Acid-mine runoff). The problem of Acid Mine run off is being worked on, but will take decades to solve. Do to this huge amount of Acid mine runoff release into the waters of the Conemaugh water shed, to keep fish kills in the Allegheny low, any released of water from the Conemaugh dam MUST be in conjunction with the cleaner water from Kinzu.


Information on improving the Upper Conemaugh River:
http://www.scrip.pa-conservation.org/
http://www.conemaughvalleyconservancy.org/

Kiskiminetas River:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiskiminetas_River

Conemaugh River:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conemaugh_River

Little Conemaugh River Acid Mine Study:
http://pa.water.usgs.gov/projects/amd/stonycreek.html

As to efforts to control Johnstown Flooding, what the Corp of Engineers did was built a concrete bathtub for the Stony Creek, Little Conemaugh and Conemaugh rivers, so that the water can flow through the valley as quickly as possible. Prior to this construction in the late 1930s Johnstown would be hit by floods constantly, but most of the damage (except for the 1889 flood) was caused by water backing up do to blockages in the River Bed (The Concrete Bed solved this problem). The 1889 Flood was caused by a Dam, which had been built for the Allegheny Canal in the 1830s, collapsed (After having been poorly rebuilt in the late 1860s). The 1936 St Patrick Day Flood caused FDR to have the Corp rebuilt the River walls in Johnstown to make the City "Flood Free". The 1977 Flood was a freak once in 500 year storm that dropped a huge amount of water into the Water shed, that no one in 1938 thought would ever happen.

I believe all major rivers are dammed (or is it damned) except for the Yukon and one in Siberia.

(hydro electricity)

or at least that is what the
people flying to Bali in their private jets
would want you to believe

You mean that those huge walls we make to bend the environment to us won't help when the consequences of actions such as building walls to bend the environment to us finally come calling?

How is that fair?

Certain kinds of dams, relating to maintaining river navigability, will become more important as peak-fossil brings things like water-transport back into the foreground.

Dams relating to water storage and irrigation may also become even more important, as precip-patterns become more erratic.

As a once-and-future whitewater kayaker, I still hate fucking dams. But life is full of shitty compromises.

You would never know it from all the dunderheads who sit around whining about Three Mile Island - where exactly zero people died - but just three years before that major disaster that wiped out the city of Harrisburg PA, where no one will ever live again - but more than 200,000 people died when the Banqiao dam collapsed, making that renewable energy disaster, by far, the largest energy disaster of all time, with obvious exception of the invention of coal mining.

You will not hear ONE "renewables will save us" advocate even talk about Banqiao.

Four hundred million people - more than the number of people who died from all causes, including genocide, in 20th century wars - depend on the Yangtze River for their lives.

Hydroelectricity is the second largest, after nuclear power, form of climate change gas free energy, if you don't count methane emissions from reservoirs.