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Impacts of Large Dams: A Global Assessment pp 69–94Cite as

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoirs

Part of the Water Resources Development and Management book series (WRDM)

Abstract

It is difficult to conceive of another aspect of water resources development that evokes as much emotion, public concern and challenge for policy makers as dam and reservoir construction. Some want to store water, generate electricity, irrigate or ameliorate living in other ways by constructing dams. Others oppose this because dams and reservoirs destruct valuable ecosystems, displace people from river valleys where they have dwelled for millennia and so on.

Keywords

  • Reservoir Area
  • Tropical Zone
  • Natural Lake
  • Deep Water Layer
  • Hydropower Reservoir

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Acknowledgements

This work is dedicated to the memory of our dear colleague and co-author Jari Huttunen and his ground-breaking work on greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs. Mr. Huttunen suddenly passed away during this project.

The authors acknowledge the excellent support of the Helsinki University of Technology (now part of Aalto University), Water Resources Laboratory and its staff. Particular thanks are due to Professor Pertti Vakkilainen and Professor Asit K. Biswas for their encouragement for this project, and to Pirkko Kortelainen, Marie Thouvenot and Jukka Turunen for comments and insight on the overall topic of this work. The financial support of Maa- ja Vesitekniikan Tuki r.y. is greatly appreciated.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water and Development Research Group, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Olli Varis & Matti Kummu

  2. Uusimaa Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Helsinki, Finland

    Saku Härkönen

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland

    Jari T. Huttunen

Authors
  1. Olli Varis
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  2. Matti Kummu
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  3. Saku Härkönen
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  4. Jari T. Huttunen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Third World Centre for Water Management, Avenida Manantial Oriente 27, Los Clubes, Atizapan, 52958, Mexico

    Cecilia Tortajada

  2. Fac. Engineering, Dept. Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, 06531, Turkey

    Dogan Altinbilek

  3. Third World Centre for Water Management, Avenida Manantial Oriente 27, Los Clubes, Atizapan, 52958, Mexico

    Asit K. Biswas

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4.6 List of GHG observations from the reservoirs
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Varis, O., Kummu, M., Härkönen, S., Huttunen, J.T. (2012). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoirs. In: Tortajada, C., Altinbilek, D., Biswas, A. (eds) Impacts of Large Dams: A Global Assessment. Water Resources Development and Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23571-9_4

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