2010 – The Year of Biodiversity

Biodiversity – a wide array of and within species – is one of our world’s most precious resources along with water, air and soil. The biodiversity of the earth as we know it has gradually developed over time. Highly complex, diverse ecosystems have arisen inland, in the rivers and in the world’s oceans. Each species has its role and its significance within each system. When a species dies out, there is nothing to replace its functions. In many cases, it is impossible to know what the impact of this will be on an ecosystem.

For us as humans, caring for and stabilising our ecosystems to protect all of our species to the fullest extent, is a guiding principle. It is the very essence of protecting life as we know it. One example of the need for biodiversity is the development of new pharmaceuticals via the systematic analysis of plant remedies and the urgent search for new, natural antibiotics – even in an age where it seems that we operate independently of nature. To put it bluntly, with every species that becomes extinct, our own species has a lower chance of surviving or maintaining our quality of life.

Above and beyond the useful aspect, the diversity of nature has great intrinsic value. Every living thing, every species is the result of the same evolutionary process that has created higher animals and humans. If they disappear – regardless of the impact on humans – it is an irreversible loss.

Hydropower and biodiversity

Rivers are complex ecosystems that offer all types of fish a suitable habitat. In order to spawn and find new homes, fish can travel many hundreds of kilometres. Even if they lose their course due to strong flood currents, they attempt to find their way back to their original habitat.

Although hydropower is, in many ways, among the cleanest and most sustainable forms of energy production, every power plant has an impact on nature. Barrages can impede the travels of fish and separate populations. It took a relatively long time to realise the impact: while in the first half of the 20th century, the focus during the construction of power plants was the impacts on fishery, since the 1980s and 90s, attention has shifted to the ecological functionality of water bodies. The importance of diverse species and stable ecosystems is now widely known.

Interconnecting river systems and creating habitats

The effects of hydropower utilisation can be minimised with sophisticated measures. By building functional fish passes, for instance, the fish are given the opportunity to navigate the barriers and continue their travels as usual. At the same time, humans can still benefit from the use of water in power generation.

“Networked river systems” is of critical importance with regard to repopulating revitalised areas, genetic exchange and balancing out the population flow. Apart from fish migration, it also facilitates the migration of other species.

While fish passes were built for some older hydropower plants, they were designed with the interests of fishery in mind. Over the last 20 years, fish passes have been created with the assistance of environmental experts. Today, it is known that some of the measures taken years ago do not comply with the latest findings of research. Thus, numerous projects have been launched to improve fish passes in cooperation with scientists. The findings will be implemented in new and existing power plants.

Fish passes require a great deal of time and expenditure: they need sufficient space and generate higher maintenance costs due to their need for regular care and adjustments to the channels.

Our brochure on fish passes (published May 2008) is available on our web site www.verbund.at.

Further measures to minimise the effects of hydropower plants include the design of the power plants’ surroundings based on ecological factors, such as building shallow-water areas and additional bypass channels. The near-nature fish passes also provide a habitat for other fauna and flora.