Dr. David Kaplan: UF Water Institute Distinguished Scholar Seminar
Socio-Ecohydrology of a Dammed Amazon The Amazon River basin is the world’s largest watershed and provides >US$30 billion/yr in critical ecosystem services to local populations, national societies and humanity at large. The Amazon is also a relatively untapped source of hydropower electricity for Latin America, with construction of >30 large hydroelectric dams and >170 small dams currently underway in support of increased energy security, economic growth, improved living standards, and industrialization. This rapid pace of planned development, coupled with the spatial scale of its impact and potential for detrimental loss of globally important ecosystem services, make this impending transformation unprecedented. This seminar will present a summary of collaborative interdisciplinary research to synthesize effects of dams on riverine hydrology, fisheries production, and social wellbeing in the Brazilian Amazon.