One of the work programmes of the IEA Hydro TCP (Technology Collaboration Programme) is dedicated to Hydropower and Fish (click Annex XIII at www.ieahydro.org). Since its launch in 2013, the working group of the Annex XIII has raised awareness on fish and hydropower interactions on a global scale.
The negative impacts of hydropower on fish as well as mitigation measures to address them have been disseminated through several seminars, conferences, and via reports and scientific publications.
In the closing phase of the programme, the group of experts worked closely to condense available knowledge on the topic into a document and to recommend up-to-date solutions to the stakeholders and practitioners of the field (in essence to decision- and policy-makers, ecologists, engineers, hydro managers, investors and operators).
The report focuses on two-way fish migration past hydropower installations, and it also provides an introduction to general challenges and mitigation measures to other negative impacts. These include, but are not limited to, conditions on changed habitats, sedimentation, water quality and flow regime. In addition, a simple decision support tool has been developed and included in the report, to navigate the readers towards potential mitigation measures.
Practical information and cases with applied best practices are also presented in the document. Altogether, the report forms a ‘Roadmap for Best Practice Management’, which was introduced at the HYDRO 2022 event and will be publicly available later in 2022. It is currently undergoing external review during the summer, a process to which the readers of The International Journal on Hydropower & Dams are invited to contribute. For more information, please contact the operating agent of the annex, Dr Marcell Szabo-Meszaros: marcell.szabo-meszaros@sintef.no
