The Social, Historical, and Institutional Contingencies of Dam Removal
| Autor: | Coleen Fox, Chris Sneddon, Francis J. Magilligan |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Value (ethics) Conservation of Natural Resources 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Process (engineering) media_common.quotation_subject Comparative case Dam removal History 21st Century 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Politics Rivers New England Water Supply Environmental politics Social Change Environmental planning Restoration ecology Environmental Restoration and Remediation 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common Global and Planetary Change Ecology business.industry Environmental resource management History 19th Century History 20th Century Pollution Socioeconomic Factors Psychological resilience Business |
| Zdroj: | Environmental Management. 59:982-994 |
| ISSN: | 1432-1009 0364-152X |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00267-017-0835-2 |
| Popis: | Environmental managers in the United States and elsewhere are increasingly perceiving dam removal as a critical tool for river restoration and enhancing watershed resilience. In New England, over 125 dams have been dismantled for ecological and economic rationales. A surprising number of these removals, including many that are ongoing, have generated heated conflicts between restoration proponents and local communities who value their dammed landscapes. Using a comparative case study approach, we examine the environmental conflict around efforts to remove six dams in New England. Each of these removal efforts followed quite different paths and resultant outcomes: successful removal, stalled removal, and failure despite seemingly favorable institutional conditions. Lengthy conflicts often transpired in instances where removals occurred, but these were successfully arbitrated by paying attention to local historical-geographical conditions conducive to removal and by brokering effective compromises between dam owners and the various local actors and stakeholders involved in the removal process. Yet our results across all cases suggest that these are necessary, but not sufficient conditions for restoration through dam removal since a similar set of conditions typified cases where removals are continuously stalled or completely halted. Scholars examining the intersection between ecological restoration and environmental politics should remain vigilant in seeking patterns and generalities across cases of environmental conflict in order to promote important biophysical goals, but must also remain open to the ways in which those goals are thwarted and shaped by conflicts that are deeply contingent on historical-geographical conditions and broader institutional networks of power and influence. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full text from SpringerLink