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Flexible approach
Environmental design in regulated rivers can give more sustainable hydropower solutions. In order to achieve this,
Norway needs a more flexible and holistic political approach.
Water Framework Directive
The EU Water Frame
work Directive (WFD) of 2000, implemented in Norway
through theWater Regulation Act (“Vannforskriften”), introduces
a new regulation technique:
Environmental quality standards
.
The focus is more on how to improve the ecological condition
of the water body and less oriented towards why the water
body is in its current status. Rather than requiring a specific
environmental flow, a minimum size of fish stock should be
defined.
Quality standards
In order to use environmental quality
standards, stakeholders need to gain better insight into the
consequences of proposed measures in heavily regulated
rivers,
so-called Heavily Modified Water Bodies
. Such water
bodies may have less stringent targets, but they still need an
environmental quality norm as a reference for how and when
a desired ecological potential can be achieved. The current
management plans agreed upon by the water regions, reflect
such an approach.
Mitigation measures
The mitigation measures will be
executed through the existing national hydropower legislation
where a system and method for revisions of licenses is already
in place. At the same time, mandatory plans for improving the
ecological status must be developed by the regional water
administration unit. These processes are not governed by the
same ministries and require new ways of collaboration and
implementation, creating regulatory challenges. The imple
mentation of the WFD should be linked closely to revisions
of hydropower licenses, but it is unclear how this will be
combined in Norway. The possibility of using mitigation
measures raises the need for working with scenarios, which is
addressed in CEDREN.
Holistic approach
The expected costs of achieving
required environmental status is a major concern. In this
respect, it is interesting to follow the new hydropower projects
in the Kvina River in Agder water region. There, environmental
improvements are directly linked to increased water with
drawal from tributaries for both increased hydropower
production and mitigating measures for the salmon stock. A
water bank is kept for environmental use in existing reservoirs
in the Kvina catchment and several measures such as fish
ladders and habitat improvements are planned in the river. In
addition, there will be more water also available for power
production at the existing Tonstad power plant, creating a
win-win solution for power and salmon. This holistic regu
latory approach provides an important contribution to
ensure a sustainable salmon population in the Kvina River.
The SusWater project addresses these regulatory challenges
and efforts of promoting environmental design and win-win
solutions.
Contact:
audun.ruud@nina.no