Hydrology

Lea el relato del Instituto de Hidráulica y Hidrologia de Bolivia sobre impactos en Bolívia de las represas del rio Madeira.

Article on the history of the Madeira River complex, and the Brazilian government´s efforts to gain approval for the project, no matter what the cost.

Muddy Waters: Impacts of Damming the Amazon's Principal Tributary

Organized by Glenn Switkes
Edited by Patricia Bonilha

• March 2008 World Rivers Review
  

The central assumption governing the design and operation of all major water projects has just been declared dead by a group of leading water and climate scientists. Designers and builders of dams need take note.

The scientists, led by Paul Milly of the US Geological Service, explained in a recent article in Science that our dams, floodwalls and sewers have been designed and operated under the assumption of "stationarity" - that natural systems fluctuate within a defined set of extremes that can be estimated from past experience. But climate change means "stationarity is dead" for water resources planning, the scientists say.

Lori Pottinger

from World Rivers Review

The book "Disconnected Rivers" by Ellen Wohl (Yale University Press, 2004) reveals how human activities have impoverished US rivers and impaired the connections between rivers and other ecosystems. The following excerpts describe the natural interactions that make for a healthy river, and an effort to restore the channelized Kissimmee River in Florida.