DYNAMIC EXTERNALITIES OF HYDROPOWER DEVELOPMENT

摘要

Hydropower development has both positive and negative impacts on the society, economy, and environment. Focusing on the impacts that have not or can not be internalised, this paper identifies the externalities of hydropower development in three dimensions: social impacts, economic impacts, and environmental impacts. Then, an externality measurement model was established to evaluate the external benefits and costs of different stakeholders in different phases of hydropower projects. On this basis, the authors analysed the trend of externalities of hydropower project Z on the Jinsha River, a segment of the Upper Yangtze River. The results show that project Z has small negative and positive externalities on the society; almost no negative externality on economy, except in 2014; negative externality on the environment in the construction phase, but positive externality in the operation phase; overall, project Z only brings positive externalities, which were small and fluctuating in the construction phase and will increase gradually to 266.71 million USD in the operation phase. The research results provide a good reference for the redistribution of external benefits and the solution of resettlement and environmental issues of hydropower development.