Guide on environmental approach to Small Hydro Plants

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 HOW THE IDEA OF THIS GUIDE WAS BORN
The idea of this guide was born in 1998 after the completion of a small hydropower plant in the northern part of Italy (Rino small hydro power plant): this plant was realised inside an area particularly sensitive from the environmental point of view, Adamello Natural Park; the choices made during the design stage were the result of a close examination of the envi ronmental problems connected with the realisation in a park and were agreed upon wit the relevant authorities, especially the mitigation and compensation measures.

Thanks to its innovation and its peculiarity, the project received the financial support of the European Commission within the THERMIE A programme.

The experience acquired in the plant realisation, the results achieved, especially in terms of acceptability of a small hydropower plant in a sensitive area and in terms of collaboration with the relevant authorities and, last but not least, the appreciation by environmental offices of the adoption of the multi criteria analysis for the environmental impact assessment, suggested to the authors the idea of creating a tool to favour the discussion about the environmental impact of small hydropower plants on as objective as possible basis and of placing the said experience acquired at disposal of both small hydropower plants designers and public officers in charge of authorisation issuing.

The results is the present guide prepared within the frame of the THERMIE B Programme project nr. DIS/2037/98-IT and at now included in 5th Framework Programme.

The guide, especially with reference to the structure of chapter 5, widely utilises the results and the general lines set out in the project nr. 4.1030/z/97-010 “Ecological evaluation criterai in case of hydropower projects referring to theEU-EMAS regulation” carried out within the ALTENER programme.

1.2 WHY A GUIDE TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANTS
Everyone working in the small hydropower field knows how many obstacles are put on the road of the implementation of a small hydro power plant. One of the highest ones is repre sented by the environmental impacts connected to the construction and operation of a small hy dropower plant.

The guide is meant to be the contribution, based on real experiences, of the people who work in the renewable energy source field to a correct facing the environmental problems by means of:

• Suggestion of typical and well tried methodologies to reduce environmental impact boht in the design and constru  ction phase.
• Evaluation of the actual benefits brought to environmental parameters, but to technical and economical parameters too, by the actions devised to improve the pro  ject.
• Sensitivity analysis, in order to give the designer precious directions about the parame ters which mainly influence the project from every standpoint (technical, economical, environmental).

As at the roots of whatever choice (design, construction and authorisation issuing choice) the analysis of the environmental impact is present – analysis always complex and often too subjective – a large part of the work carried out has been devoted to the implementation of a analysis system which could meet the following criteria:

• Objectivity, that is inter-subjective verifiableness;
• Capability in analysing complex pheno    mena;
• Contemporary acceptability by environmentalists, investors and officers in charge of a thorisation issuing;
• Compatibility with the main evaluations methods already used and usually less com plex than the here proposed one.

The most important aim of the guide is in fact to supply a mean as objective as possible to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment, based on objective criteria linked to measurable quantities (energy, velocities, areas, volumes and so on) in order to avoid any unacceptable, arbitrary or too subjective evaluation.

This aim has been achieved by means of the multi-criteria analysis.

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