Giuliano Di Baldassarre featured in a new article in National Geographic
2022-10-12
CNDS Director, Giuliano Di Baldassarre has been featured in a new article in National Geographic which was aiming at addressing the question: "Is building more dams the way to save rivers?".
Earlier this year, World Wildlife Fund conducted a study on hydropower dams globally, thus understanding that almost two out of three planned hydropower dams globally will be in river basins with very high or extreme risks for droughts, floods, or both, by the year 2050.
Already, hydropower generation has declined dramatically in many regions due to falling water levels in rivers. For some countries, such as Zambia, which gets most of its electricity from hydropower, losses in the amount of hydro-harnessed electricity can lead to major economic disruptions, which is what happened in the southern African country as a result of a decade-long drought that saw output decline by 40 percent.
Giuliano argues that “most scientists agree that these supply-demand cycles, or what we call rebound effects, might worsen the impact of drought and water shortage".
The entire article can be accessed on National Geographic's home page.
Giuliano's paper on water shortages' effects can be accessed on Nature Sustainability's website.