How Does The Hydroelectric Dam Impact The Environment Weegy (2024)

FAQs

How Does The Hydroelectric Dam Impact The Environment Weegy? ›

Thus, hydroelectric dam impacts the environment by blocking fish migration. The correct option is D.

A dam and reservoir can also change natural water temperatures, water chemistry, river flow characteristics, and silt loads. All of these changes can affect the ecology and the physical characteristics of the river. These changes may have negative effects on native plants and on animals in and around the river.

Final answer:

Hydroelectric dams significantly impact the environment by blocking fish migration, altering aquatic habitats, and displacing populations, among other effects.

To build a dam, new roads and power lines must be installed that disrupt the environment. Dams also often form reservoirs that flood large areas and displace natural habitats. When dams flood areas, it creates sections of still or stagnant water that kills vegetation which emits greenhouse gasses as it rots.

Just as reducing downstream water flow can cause habitat loss, creating reservoirs to generate electricity in storage and pumped storage hydropower systems often cause upstream flooding that destroys wildlife habitats, scenic areas, and prime farming land.

Flooding land for a hydroelectric reservoir has an extreme environmental impact: it destroys forest, wildlife habitat, agricultural land, and scenic lands. In many instances, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China, entire communities have also had to be relocated to make way for reservoirs [3].

Dams are massive structures that retain water for domestic use, irrigation, hydroelectricity generation, and for use in industrial processes. However, when dams block the flow of water across a river, they trap enormous amounts of lake sediments in their reservoirs.

Dams Produce Significant Amounts of Methane

Dams generate methane and carbon dioxide when vegetation and organic matter are flooded in the reservoirs and start to decay underwater, as well as when areas are deforested to make way for building the project.

While often offered as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, dams can have severe environmental impacts ranging from deforestation to obstruction of fish migrations, water pollution, and even direct greenhouse gas emissions resulting from inundation of the surrounding area.

In this case, a rising water table damaged urban sewer systems, ancient monuments, and agricultural fields. A lack of rich sediment in the water drove high artificial fertilizer use and wiped out fish populations.

What are the bad environmental impacts of electricity? ›

Electric power generation is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide pollution, contributing to climate change, which is threatening public health and affecting ecosystems at multiple levels, from the biological communities that make up ecosystems to the services they provide to communities, economies, and people.

Air and water pollution are two leading environmental issues associated with geothermal energy technologies. Additional concerns are the safe disposal of hazardous waste, siting and land subsidence. Most geothermal power plants require a large amount of water for cooling or other purposes.

Overview. Burning fossil fuels at power plants creates emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide (CO₂), mercury (Hg), and other pollutants.

In an aquatic ecosystem where fishes reside they migrate for the purpose of reproduction. Building hydroelectric dams on water bodies blocks the way for fishes when they migrate. Thus, hydroelectric dam impacts the environment by blocking fish migration.

Overview. Hydropower is the oldest form of clean electricity, with significantly lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than most other energy sources. In comparison with burning coal, hydropower avoids up to four billion tonnes of additional greenhouse gas emissions being emitted annually.

Disadvantages of hydropower

The construction of dams has a large environmental impact: it can alter aquatic habitat, flood previously dry areas, may require the expropriation of land, leading to the relocation of local communities, changes in water quality, etc.