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Updated: Jul 23, 2025

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework
Published on: July 24, 2016
Large hydropower projects increase stress despite compensation efforts: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon
Adam Mayer1, Igor Cavallini Johansen2, Maria Claudia Lopez3
1Center for Earth Observations and Global Change, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States of Ameica.
Abstract:
Large hydropower projects continue to be built in developing nations, despite their known negative impacts. Large-scale energy projects strain local infrastructure and reduce access to infrastructure for households that live near them. Here we investigate the link between large-scale hydropower projects and stress. Our results suggest that these projects create stress through two mechanisms: strains on community resources and through the process of displacement. We also ask how compensation and resettlement programs condition these relationships. Using data from the Madeira river basin in the Brazilian Amazon, we find that hydropower projects increase stress by reducing access to energy, water, sanitation and land. Compensation provided was not sufficient to moderate this effect.
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