An indicator-based approach to assessing resilience of socio-hydrologic systems in Nepal to hydropower development

摘要

Resilience is essential to the integrity of socio-hydrologic systems, especially when faced with stress caused by natural hazards and economic development. Nepal has seen both in recent years. The objective of this study is to construct and implement an indicator-based approach to assess socio-hydrological systems with new metrics to evaluate the influence of hydropower development. We adopted a conceptual framework in which resilience is a relative complement of vulnerability and dependent on adaptive capacity. The framework has eight vulnerability parameters: water variation, water scarcity, water exploitation, water pollution, natural capacity, physical capacity, human resource capacity, and economic capacity. Hydropower development was incorporated into a modified resilience framework to explore the socio-hydrological impacts. This holistic approach revealed that although hydropower development contributes to water stress, it can also increase adaptive capacity. In addition, this study strengthened the argument for indicator-based approaches to evaluating socio-hydrologic systems, particularly when evaluating hydropower development, which impacts numerous economic and hydrologic systems. This type of framework is particularly needed in developing countries, such as Nepal, where water resource development is rapidly increasing and changing traditional socio-hydrologic systems.