Industrialization of Rivers: A Water System Approach to Hydropower Development

摘要

In a letter dated 1906, one of the Swedish hydropower pioneers outlined his plan to build the country's largest hydropower plant in River Gullspang. A key element in the grand plan was to use Lake Skagern as a reservoir. In his letter, he described the design of the project. His plan was to turn Lake Skagern into"a water container" where the "Sunday water" was to be accumulated. Water flowing in to the "water container "during the day of rest was to be stored for further use in hydropower production during working days. By naming Lake Skagern "a water container", he conceptually distanced himself from designating it a lake, and by the new term he made an abstraction of the lake and described it as a body of measurement. By using the concept" Sunday water, "he also gave a new meaning to the water discharge. This glimpse from the pioneer days in hydropower development focuses on the extensive alterations of rivers all over the world (Dynesius & Nilsson, 1994). By introducing the concept of Industrializing Rivers this development, from the free flowing to the harnessed water system, will be analyzed. Secondly, the hydropower-producing river as a Large Technological environmental politics have led to new stipulations on dam operation in many places. For example at the Glen Canyon Dam it is no longer power demands that predominate the way water is let into Grand Canyon (Aton and McPherson 2000, p. 168). However, the water current could at any moment be altered again.