Hydropower plants and the complexity of local environmental systems

• Grant number: 11/05597-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: February 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Evandro Mateus Moretto
• Grantee: Daniel Rondinelli Roquetti
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The project presents the issues of hydropower plants as development projects, establishing the dilemma between the growth of electricity's overture and the negative consequences that hydropower plant's cause to the area in which its influences occur. Moreover, it introduces the issue in the theoretical framework of the system's theory and, then, associates the issue to authors who write about the development of environmental systems. Bt this framework, it interprets hydroelectric projects as a phenomena responsible for structural changes of local systems by simplifying them, which may influence their development in a negative way. Presenting the hypothesis in which hydropower plants simplify local environmental systems, the purpose of this project is to study the Barra Grande's hydropower plant. The objective is to observe the simplifications that hydropower plants have been causing in the local environmental structures. This project suggests methods of spatial analysis, modeling, and the composition of correspondent models due to two different scenarios; the situation without a hydropower plant system, and the situation in which the hydropower plant already exists and operates. Thus, the project plan is listed below with the schedule of work to be presented. Concluding with the theoretical, conceptual and methodological methods that will be executed in order to analyze the results obtained. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ROQUETTI, Daniel Rondinelli. Hydropower plants and the complexity of local social-ecological systems: a case study of the Barra Grande hydropower plant. 2013. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD) São Carlos.