Researchers backed by multimillion-dollar grants from NASA are heading to Southeast Asia’s Mekong River region to find ways to improve dams so that they are less harmful to people and the environment.
Researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) are to spend three years analyzing sites in the lower Mekong River basin in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The project is to be funded by two grants from the US space agency, NASA, totaling US$3 million, and the researchers hope that their findings will improve dams around the world.
Photo: AFP
“The most egregious effects of dam building are displacement and relocation,” MSU professor of fisheries and wildlife Daniel Kramer said. “But the research that we’re doing is also suggesting that there are a lot of less obvious things that the effects of dams bring on local people and ecosystems.”
For example, there are concerns about damage to farming and fisheries due to dam projects along the lower Mekong, which is the world’s largest freshwater fishery and home to 60 million people.
The environmental impact of dams might drastically change the economies and social structures of communities, Kramer added.
Dam building is experiencing a resurgence worldwide — with many projects backed by Chinese funding — as more countries look for affordable ways to generate energy for their growing populations.
Most Mekong countries, especially China, have been planning and building hydropower dams since the late 1980s, but an uptick in dam projects began about 15 years ago.
The Mekong River’s mainstream now has about 11 dams and more than 100 on its tributaries, MSU professor of geography Jiaguo Qi (齊家國) said.
The MSU researchers are to analyze how dams affect the flow of rivers, local agriculture, fisheries, irrigations systems and wetland ecosystems, Qi said.
As well as analyzing satellite imagery, researchers are to develop models to simulate historical water flows and project how those flows might change as a result of dam construction and shrinking glaciers in the Himalayan headwaters.
Interviews are also to be conducted with local residents to find out how communities that surround or are downstream from dams cope with the loss of wetlands and fisheries, and what the economic benefits are.
The research team is to regularly produce papers and hold workshops throughout the three-year period, with the final report available to the general public.
It is hoped that the research would be used to make existing dams and those still in the planning stage more sustainable, Qi said, adding that while some preliminary research has already begun, the field work for the project is to begin in May.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese