Sustainable governance of river basins with Hydropower production (SusWater)

Project leader is Atle Harby, SINTEF. Audun Ruud, NINA, leads WP1 and 5. Peggy Zinke, post doc in the project, leads WP 2. Ingrid Nesheim, NIVA, leads WP3 on Socio-economic indicators. Berit Köhler, NINA, leads WP4, and SEI contributes to WP1. All partners contribute to WP5.

For more on the SusWater project, follow link to CEDREN.

Work packages (WP):

WP1: Regulatory framework and policy implementation
WP2: Techno-ecological methods for sustainable river basin management
WP3: Socio-economic indicators for sustainable river basin management
WP4: Framework for decision support
WP5: Towards improved watershed governance
WP6: Improved characterization of water bodies impacted by hydropower

Ingrid Nesheim, NIVA, leads WP3 which aims to develop a framework for socio-economic indicators in regulated rivers suitable for Norway.

The WP explores qualitative, quantitative and economic techniques to assess benefits on local, regional and national scale. Case study areas have included Eksingedals and Teigdals watershed areas in Hordaland, and the SiraKvina watershed areas in Vest Agder, where BKK and Sira-Kvina KS respectively are hydropower producers.

The watersheds were selected for fieldwork as these are regulated for hydropower production, and since both are subject for revision of license conditions. Data collection in the study have included face to face interviews, a survey, focus group discussions, workshops, and two internet based surveys. 

Main deliverables of WP3:

• Report: Guideline and overview of suitable methods for benefit evaluation of water use interest evaluation. 
• Policy brief: Metoder for nyttevurdering av goder i regulerte vassdrag
• Paper: Hvordan kan regulerte vassdrag tilrettelegges for flerbruk? Et studie av vassdragsfunksjoner og brukerpreferanser (Vann, 2018 02)
• Policy brief: Sosio-økonomiske indikatorer for nyttevurdering i regulerte vassdrag. SusWater Policy Brief 2/2018.
• Paper: Nesheim, I.; Barkved, L. The Suitability of the Ecosystem Services Framework for Guiding Benefit Assessments in Human-Modified Landscapes Exemplified by Regulated Watersheds—Implications for a Sustainable Approach. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1821.
• Paper: Nesheim, I; Barkved, L (2019): Bruk av indikatorer og verdielementer for å synligjøre og vurdere nytte i regulerte vassdrag. Vann på Nett.

Funding: The project is part of CEDREN and it is financed by the Norwegian Research Council and the programme EnergiX. It is a KPN project, a «Kompetanseprosjekt for næringslivet», which means that it has 25 % funding from industrial partners and public management. 

Project partners: The SusWater project has funding from the EnergiX programme, in addition to Sira-Kvina kraftselskap, Statkraft, Hydro, Agder Energi, Lyse, BKK, TrønderEnergi, Energi Norge, Sogn og Fjordane Energi, Energi Norge and Miljødirektoratet. 

See left column for more information about the project and contact persons.