Regulated Rivers: Environment, Ecology, and Management

• Start Date: May 06, 2015
• End Date: May 07, 2015
• City: Castlegar BC
• Venue: Selkirk College
• Conference summary available below

Conference description

The conference summary is available HERE (.pdf)

Regulated waterways provide important services such as flood regulation, power generation with low greenhouse gas emissions, and energy storage. Nevertheless, the damming and regulation of rivers incurs ecological costs via the operation of reservoirs and alteration of downstream flows, combined with the often permanent loss of valley bottom habitat. Regulation can affect both upstream (reservoir) and downstream environments. A recent increase in smaller hydro-electric projects (e.g. run-of-river projects) has led to a flourish in the study of their unique impacts. Over half of the world’s large rivers are regulated, including the Columbia River and its tributaries. Despite inevitable footprint impacts, considerable ecological function may remain in these systems, supporting a diversity of plants, fish, and wildlife. Within the Columbia Basin, a wealth of research has recently emerged to increase our understanding of ecosystem processes within regulated river environments, with the potential to aid in mitigating footprint and operational impacts to plants, fish, and wildlife.

Through a keynote address, 2 days of presentations, a poster session and dialogue opportunities, this conference will provide a cutting-edge opportunity for scientists and managers to share results of recent research on regulated river environments, processes, and operations in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. A conference summary will be available on the CMI website after the event.

CMI would like to give a big THANK YOU to our event partners & sponsors

Columbia Mountains Institute is pleased to work with these agencies in hosting this event:

Selkirk College, Columbia Basin Trust, LGL Limited and Cooper Beauchesne Associates Ltd. Golder Associates Ltd.