Download or read book Contested Knowledges written by Esha Shah and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Locally and globally, mega-hydraulic projects have become deeply controversial. Recently, despite widespread critique, they have regained a new impetus worldwide. The developmentand operation of large dams and mega-hydraulic infrastructure projects are manifestations of contested knowledge regimes. In this special issue we present, analyze and critically engage with situations where multiple knowledge regimes interact and conflict with each other, and where different grounds for claiming the truth are used to construct hydrosocial realities. In this introductory paper, we outline the conceptual groundwork. We discuss ‘the dark legend of UnGovernance’ as an epistemological mainstay underlying the mega-hydraulic knowledge regimes, involving a deep, often subconscious, neglect of the multiplicity of hydrosocial territories and water cultures. Accordingly, modernist epistemic regimes tend to subjugate other knowledge systems and dichotomize ‘civilized Self’ versus ‘backward Other’; they depend upon depersonalized planning models that manufacture ignorance. Romanticizing and reifying the ‘othered’ hydrosocial territories and vernacular / indigenous knowledge, however, may pose a serious danger to dam-affected communities. Instead, we show how multiple forms of power challenge mega-hydraulic rationality thereby repoliticizing large dam regimes. This happens often through complex, multi-actor, multi-scalar coalitions that make that knowledge is co-created in informal arenas and battlefields.
Download or read book Dams and Development written by Sanjeev Khagram and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big dams built for irrigation, power, water supply, and other purposes were among the most potent symbols of economic development for much of the twentieth century. Of late they have become a lightning rod for challenges to this vision of development as something planned by elites with scant regard for environmental and social consequences—especially for the populations that are displaced as their homelands are flooded. In this book, Sanjeev Khagram traces changes in our ideas of what constitutes appropriate development through the shifting transnational dynamics of big dam construction. Khagram tells the story of a growing, but contentious, world society that features novel and increasingly efficacious norms of appropriate behavior in such areas as human rights and environmental protection. The transnational coalitions and networks led by nongovernmental groups that espouse such norms may seem weak in comparison with states, corporations, and such international agencies as the World Bank. Yet they became progressively more effective at altering the policies and practices of these historically more powerful actors and organizations from the 1970s on. Khagram develops these claims in a detailed ethnographic account of the transnational struggles around the Narmada River Valley Dam Projects in central India, a huge complex of thirty large and more than three thousand small dams. He offers further substantiation through a comparative historical analysis of the political economy of big dam projects in India, Brazil, South Africa, and China as well as by examining the changing behavior of international agencies and global companies. The author concludes with a discussion of the World Commission on Dams, an innovative attempt in the late 1990s to generate new norms among conflicting stakeholders.
Download or read book Concrete Revolution written by Christopher Sneddon and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-09-25 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water may seem innocuous, but as a universal necessity, it inevitably intersects with politics when it comes to acquisition, control, and associated technologies. While we know a great deal about the socioecological costs and benefits of modern dams, we know far less about their political origins and ramifications. In Concrete Revolution, Christopher Sneddon offers a corrective: a compelling historical account of the US Bureau of Reclamation’s contributions to dam technology, Cold War politics, and the social and environmental adversity perpetuated by the US government in its pursuit of economic growth and geopolitical power. Founded in 1902, the Bureau became enmeshed in the US State Department’s push for geopolitical power following World War II, a response to the Soviet Union’s increasing global sway. By offering technical and water resource management advice to the world’s underdeveloped regions, the Bureau found that it could not only provide them with economic assistance and the United States with investment opportunities, but also forge alliances and shore up a country’s global standing in the face of burgeoning communist influence. Drawing on a number of international case studies—from the Bureau’s early forays into overseas development and the launch of its Foreign Activities Office in 1950 to the Blue Nile investigation in Ethiopia—Concrete Revolution offers insights into this historic damming boom, with vital implications for the present. If, Sneddon argues, we can understand dams as both technical and political objects rather than instruments of impartial science, we can better participate in current debates about large dams and river basin planning.
Download or read book Large Dams written by Anthony H. J. Dorcey and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1996 the World Bank Operations Evaluation Department completed an internal review of 50 large dams funded by the World Bank. IUCN-The World Conservation Union and the World Bank agreed to jointly host a workshop in April 1997 to discuss the findings of the review and their implications for a more in-depth study. The workshop broke new ground by bringing together representatives from governments, the private sector, international financial institutions and civil society organizations to address three issues: critical advances needed in knowledge and practice, methodologies and approaches required to achieve these advances, and proposals for a follow-up process involving all stakeholders.
Download or read book Earthquake Engineering for Concrete Dams written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1991-02-01 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hazard posed by large dams has long been known. Although no concrete dam has failed as a result of earthquake activity, there have been instances of significant damage. Concerns about the seismic safety of concrete dams have been growing recently because the population at risk in locations downstream of major dams continues to expand and because the seismic design concepts in use at the time most existing dams were built were inadequate. In this book, the committee evaluates current knowledge about the earthquake performance of concrete dams, including procedures for investigating the seismic safety of such structures. Earthquake Engineering for Concrete Dams specifically informs researchers about state-of-the-art earthquake analysis of concrete dams and identifies subject areas where additional knowledge is needed.
Download or read book Design of Small Dams written by United States. Bureau of Reclamation and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 860 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Design of Earth Dams written by A.L. Goldin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earth dams are the most common impoundment structures, with stringent requirements imposed on their design and construction. Modern design require accurate static and dynamic computations based on thorough analysis of stress-strain conditions, as detailed in this handbook (translated from the Russia
Download or read book Impacts of Large Dams A Global Assessment written by Cecilia Tortajada and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most controversial issues of the water sector in recent years has been the impacts of large dams. Proponents have claimed that such structures are essential to meet the increasing water demands of the world and that their overall societal benefits far outweight the costs. In contrast, the opponents claim that social and environmental costs of large dams far exceed their benefits, and that the era of construction of large dams is over. A major reason as to why there is no consensus on the overall benefits of large dams is because objective, authoritative and comprehensive evaluations of their impacts, especially ten or more years after their construction, are conspicuous by their absence. This book debates impartially, comprehensively and objectively, the positive and negative impacts of large dams based on facts, figures and authoritative analyses. These in-depth case studies are expected to promote a healthy and balanced debate on the needs, impacts and relevance of large dams, with case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America.
Download or read book The Use of Models in Assessing the Behaviour of Concrete Dams written by Guido Oberti and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Model Analysis of Modern Large Dams written by Guido Oberti and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Hydrology written by J. A. A. Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global Hydrology illustrates in detail the growing importance of understanding hydrological processes and pathways as a means of effective and safe management of water resources. It describes current management practices and past environmental impact. It analyses the options for improving water supply and protecting the environment, emphasizing the need for international collaboration in a changing societal and environmental context
Download or read book Twenty Sixth International Congress on Large Dams Vingt Sixi me Congr s International des Grands Barrages written by CIGB ICOLD and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 4571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD) held its 26th International Congress in Vienna, Austria (1-7 July 2018). The proceedings of the congress focus on four main questions: 1. Reservoir sedimentation and sustainable development; 2. Safety and risk analysis; 3. Geology and dams, and 4. Small dams and levees. The book thoroughly discusses these questions and is indispensable for academics, engineers and professionals involved or interested in engineering, hydraulic engineering and related disciplines.
Download or read book Automatic Observation and Instantaneous Control of Dam Safety written by and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future of Large Dams written by Thayer Ted Scudder and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2012-04-27 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Viewed by some as symbols of progress and by others as inherently flawed, large dams remain one of the most contentious development issues on Earth. Building on the work of the now defunct World Commission on Dams, Thayer Scudder wades into the debate with unprecedented authority. Employing the Commission's Seven Strategic priorities, Scudder charts the 'middle way' forward by examining the impacts of large dams on ecosystems, societies and political economies. He also analyses the structure of the decision-making process for water resource development and tackles the highly contentious issue of dam-induced resettlement, illuminated by a statistical analysis of 50 cases.
Download or read book Split Waters written by Luisa Cortesi and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Limited, finite, contaminated, unavailable or expensive, water divides people all around the globe. We all cannot do without water for long, but can for long enough to fight for it. This commonsensical narration of water conflicts, however, follows a pattern of scarcity and necessity that is remarkably unvaried despite different social and geographical contexts. Through in-depth case studies from around the globe, this volume investigates this similarity of narration—confronting the power of a single story by taking it seriously instead of dismissing it. In so doing, it invites the reader to rethink water conflicts and how they are commonly understood and managed. This book: Posits the existence of the idea of water conflict, and asks what it is and what it produces, thus how it is used to pursue particular interests and to legitimise specific historical, technological and environmental relations; Examines the meaning and power of ideas as compared to other categories of knowledge, advancing theoretical frameworks related to environmental knowledge, discursive power, social constructivism; Presents an alternative agenda to deepen the conversation around water conflicts among scholars and activists. Of interest to scholars and activists alike, this volume is addressed to those involved with environmental conflicts, environmental knowledge and justice, disasters and climate change from the disciplinary angles of environmental anthropology and sociology, political ecology and economy, science and technology studies, human geography and environmental sciences, development and cooperation, public policy and peace studies. Essays by Gina Bloodworth, Ben Bowles, Patrick Bresnihan, Luisa Cortesi, Mattia Grandi, K. J. Joy, Midori Kawabe, Adrianne Kroepsch, Vera Lazzaretti, Leslie Mabon, Renata Moreno Quintero, Madhu Ramnath, Jayaprakash Rao Polsani, Dik Roth, Theresa Selfa,Veronica Strang, Mieke van Hemert, Jeroen Warner, Madelinde Winnubst.
Download or read book Perspectives on the History of Global Development written by Corinna R. Unger and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-10-24 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is development, what has it been in the past, and what can historians learn from studying the history of development? How has the field of the history of development evolved over time, and where should it be going in the future?
