The Covid-19 Pandemic: Limited Water Access and the Precarity of Women Fishers at Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

Man-made reservoirs are constructed to meet certain purposes and Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, was designed for hydroelectric power generation. However, it has developed other multiple uses, and the growth of fisheries on the lake has had a significant impact on the livelihoods of local communities. The declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic in Zimbabwe in March 2020 was quickly followed by the imposition of national lockdowns with varying levels of severity up to the present day. This was done to curtail the spread of the disease, meanwhile enhancing the nation’s capacity in terms of acquiring testing kits, constructing more admission and quarantine centres as well as educating the people about ways to keep safe. In response to the calls by the government to monitor the movement of people and compliance of the lockdown rules, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZNPWMA), the governing body of the Lake Kariba fisheries, imposed rules that have significantly impacted the fishing communities at Lake Kariba. Both gillnet fishers and rod and line fishers have been impacted, but our focus here is on women rod and line fishers. Using the precarious livelihoods conceptual frameworks, we show how the changes in water management during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns has generated high levels of precariousness on the livelihoods of women at Kariba. We define precariousness as the condition of uncertainties brought to the women fishers by changes in water restrictions. The precarity of women was induced by several factors. For instance, the women fishers reported that restrictions to accessing fish in areas with high catches impacted them. They are also now obliged to pay exorbitant fishing fees in a way to discourage them to fish; they were frequently chased away from the Lake by ZNPWMA officers; they had limited amount of time to fish due to curfews; and failure to comply results in heavy fines imposed on them among other challenges. We show how these challenges interact with the current Zimbabwe socio-economic crisis to worsen the precariousness and vulnerability of women fishers at Lake Kariba. Data presented in this manuscript are based on participant observation and interviews with women fishers at Lake Kariba.

Quantifying the impacts of climate variation, damming, and flow regulation on river thermal dynamics: a case study of the Włocławek Reservoir in the Vistula River, Poland

Background River damming inevitably reshapes water thermal conditions that are important to the general health of river ecosystems. Although a lot of studies have addressed the damming’s thermal impacts, most of them just assess the overall effects of climate variation and human activities on river thermal dynamics. Less attention has been given to quantifying the impact of climate variation, damming and flow regulation, respectively. In addition, for rivers that have already faced an erosion problem in downstream channels, an adjustment of the hydroelectric power plant operation manner is expected, which reinforces the need for understanding of flow regulation’s thermal impact. To fill this gap, an air2stream-based approach is proposed and applied at the Włocławek Reservoir in the Vistula River in Poland. Results In the years of 1952–1983, downstream river water temperature rose by 0.31 ℃ after damming. Meanwhile, the construction of dam increased the average annual water temperature by 0.55 ℃, while climate change oppositely made it decreased by 0.26 ℃. In addition, for the seasonal impact of damming, autumn was the most affected season with the warming reached 1.14 ℃, and the least affected season was winter when water temperature experienced a warming of 0.1 ℃. The absolute values of seasonal average temperature changes due to flow regulation were less than 0.1 ℃ for all the seasons. Conclusions The impacts of climate variation, damming, and flow regulation on river water temperatures can be evaluated reasonably on the strength of the proposed methodology. Climate variation and damming led to general opposite impacts on the downstream water temperature at the Włocławek Reservoir before 1980s. It is noted that the climate variation impact showed an opposite trend compared to that after 1980s. Besides, flow regulation below dam hardly affected downstream river water temperature variation. This study extends the current knowledge about impacts of climate variation and hydromorphological conditions on river water temperature, with a study area where river water temperature is higher than air temperature throughout a year.

Research on Seepage Control of Jurong Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Station

Based on the geological and hydrogeological conditions of the Jurong Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Station (JPSHP), a 3D groundwater flow model was developed in the power station area, which took into account the heterogeneity and anisotropy of fractured rocks. A control inversion method for fractured rock structural planes was proposed, where larger-scale fractures were used as water-conducting media and the relatively intact rock matrix was used as water-storage media. A statistical method was used to obtain the geometric parameter values of the structural planes, so as to obtain the hydraulic conductivity tensor of the fractured rocks. Combining the impermeable drainage systems of the upper storage reservoir, underground powerhouse and lower storage reservoir, the 3D groundwater seepage field in the study area was predicted using the calibrated model. The leakage amounts of the upper storage reservoir, powerhouse and lower storage reservoir were 710.48 m3/d, 969.95 m3/d and 1657.55 m3/d, respectively. The leakage changes of the upper storage reservoir, powerhouse and lower storage reservoir were discussed under the partial and full failure of the anti-seepage system. The research results provide a scientific basis for the seepage control of the power station, and it is recommended to strengthen the seepage control of the upper and lower storage reservoirs and the underground powerhouse to avoid excessive leakage and affect the efficiency of the reservoir operation.

Could road constructions be more hazardous than an earthquake in terms of mass movement?

Roads can have a significant impact on the frequency of mass wasting events in mountainous areas. However, characterizing the extent and pervasiveness of mass movements over time has rarely been documented due to limitations in available data sources to consistently map such events. We monitored the evolution of a road network and assessed its effect on mass movements for a 11-year window in Arhavi, Turkey. The main road construction projects run in the area are associated with a hydroelectric power plant as well as other road extension works and are clearly associated with the vast majority (90.1%) of mass movements in the area. We also notice that the overall number and size of the mass movements are much larger than in the naturally occurring comparison area. This means that the sediment load originating from the anthropogenically induced mass movements is larger than its counterpart associated with naturally occurring landslides. Notably, this extra sediment load could cause river channel aggregation, reduce accommodation space and as a consequence, it could lead to an increase in the probability and severity of flooding along the river channel. This marks a strong and negative effect of human activities on the natural course of earth surface processes. We also compare frequency-area distributions of human-induced mass movements mapped in this study and co-seismic landslide inventories from the literature. By doing so, we aim to better understand the consequences of human effects on mass movements in a comparative manner. Our findings show that the damage generated by the road construction in terms of sediment loads to river channels is compatible with the possible effect of a theoretical earthquake with a magnitude greater than Mw = 6.0.

An Improvement Framework for Maintenance Management

Maintenance is one of the main stages to deliver business outcomes from physical assets over their life cycles. However, as unexpected events and performance may occur in maintenance management, organizations shall be aware of how to address them as well as other opportunities for improvement. Accordingly, this chapter intends to present an improvement framework for maintenance management. The first two sections provide an introduction to maintenance management improvement and its interface with the ISO 55000 series for asset management and the maintenance management model (MMM). Then, the proposed framework and its activities for improvement in maintenance management are discussed in the third section. The fourth section addresses an overview of the main RCA techniques to support the framework implementation. Finally, a hydroelectric power plant case study is discussed to demonstrate the framework in a real operational context.

Method of calculation of water-diverting structures of low-head hydroelectric power plant for power supply of small power consumers

In recent years and in many countries the economic development of distant regions is increasingly dependent on energy resources. This fact makes the world scientific community pay more attention to the renewable energy sources. Special attention is paid to the solar, wind and small hydropower for electrical consumers who have no possibility to connect to the central power supply lines. In the countries that have water resources the financial support is given to the development of small and micro hydropower stations. The present work presents the results of the research on the improved method of calculation of water-diverting structures of low-head hydroelectric power plant with an installed cross-jet hydro turbine that is actual for the power supply of small power consumers. The presented method can be used for the preliminary analysis of morphometric characteristics of water course as well as the basic parameters of a cross-jet hydro turbine.

Evidenciação Ambiental: uma análise dos relatórios de sustentabilidade da Usina Hidrelétrica Itaipu com base na Global Reporting Initiative – GRI ## Environmental Disclosure: an analysis of the sustainability reports of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant based on the Global Reporting Initiative – GRI

Considerando que o setor de hidrelétricas causa impactos ambientais de larga escala e que a evidenciação ambiental vem se tornando cada vez mais relevante para as organizações, a presente pesquisa teve por objetivo avaliar a qualidade da evidenciação ambiental praticada nos relatórios de sustentabilidade da Usina Hidrelétrica Binacional Itaipu. Quanto à abordagem, este estudo fundamenta-se na pesquisa qualitativa, e quanto ao objeto, este estudo se classifica como uma pesquisa documental. Para atingir o objetivo desta pesquisa, a coleta dos dados foi proporcionada pelos relatórios de sustentabilidade da Usina Hidrelétrica Itaipu do período de 2014 a 2019, a partir da confrontação dos princípios apresentados pela Global Reporting Initiative para a elaboração do relatório com o conteúdo dos relatórios divulgados pela Itaipu. A análise dos relatórios indica que a Itaipu apresentou falhas quanto a aderência do princípio “comparabilidade”, ao omitir informação sobre os valores investidos nos projetos analisados, fazendo com que a leitura do stakeholder ficasse prejudicada, entretanto, é possível identificar que a Itaipu buscou manter-se alinhada com os demais princípios analisados. O presente estudo contribuiu por buscar preencher a lacuna sobre a análise de evidenciação ambiental de uma organização de relevância social como a Itaipu Binacional.ABSTRACTConsidering that the hydroelectric sector causes large-scale environmental impacts, and that environmental disclosure is becoming increasingly relevant for organizations, this research aimed to evaluate the quality of environmental disclosure practiced in the sustainability reports of the Binational Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant . As for the approach, this study is based on qualitative research, and as for the object, this study is classified as documentary research. To achieve the objective of this research, data collection was provided by the sustainability reports of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant from 2014 to 2019, based on the confrontation of the principles presented by the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines with the content of the reports disclosed by Itaipu. The analysis of the reports indicates that Itaipu failed to adhere to the "comparability" principle, by omitting information on the amounts invested in the projects analyzed, causing the stakeholder reading to be impaired, however, it is possible to identify that Itaipu sought to maintain aligned with the other principles analyzed. This study contributed by seeking to fill the gap on the analysis of environmental disclosure in an organization of social relevance such as Itaipu Binational.

PREDIKSI DEBIT ALIRAN MASUK KE TELAGA MENJER MENGGUNAKAN PERSAMAAN NERACA AIR DAN PEMODELAN HEC-HMS

The Menjer lake is the main source for Hydroelectric Power Plant of the PLTA Garung. Information about the water balance and the potential of existing water resources in the Menjer Catchment Area (DTA) is needed to obtain an efficient operating pattern, the sustainability of the Garung hydropower plant, and good management of the Menjer Lake. The purpose of this study was to estimate the inflow of three main rivers in the Menjer catchment area using HEC-HMS hydrological and water balance approach. Simulated results of the HEC-HMS model shows that the average of total the inflows of three main rivers to the Menjer lake in 2017, 2018 and 2019 during rainy season are 0.954 m3/s, 0.944 m3/s, and 1.017 m3/s, and during dry season are 0.820 m3/s, 0.783 m3/s, and 0.80 m3/s, respectively. While the prediction results of the discharge with the equation of the water balance shows that the average of total river inflows to the Menjer lake during rainy season is 2017 is 1.628 m3/s, in 2018 it is 1.579 m3/s, and in 2019 it is 3.296 m3/s and during dry season is 1.893 m3/s in 2017, 1.176 m3/s tahun 2018, and 1.893 m3/s in 2019. These results indicate that the results of discharge modeling with HEC-HMS are smaller than those predicted by the water balance equation. The study concluded that HEC-HMS could be used to predict daily inflows. However, further calibration and validation need to be carried out by recommending installing a river flow monitoring station at each river outlet.Keywords: water balance HEC-HMS, inflow prediction