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Large Dams

Long Term Impacts on Riverine Communities and Free Flowing Rivers

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Thayer Scudder

    1. Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

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  • Reflects the current global interest in large dams, including the long-term analysis of their negative impacts
  • Based on pioneering and unique research highlighting how large dams provided for river basin development
  • Discusses concerns about the magnitude of the socio-economic and environmental costs of large dams

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

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxviii
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  2. Introduction of the Book

    • Thayer Scudder
    Pages 1-26

  3. 1956–1973: I Believe Large Dams Provide an Exceptional Opportunity for Integrated River Basin Development

    • Thayer Scudder
    Pages 27-96

  4. The International Research Activities of the Institute for Development Anthropology and Increasing Concerns About the Socio-Economic and Environmental Costs of Large Dams for Free Flowing Rivers and Riverine Communities: 1976–1995

    • Thayer Scudder
    Pages 97-215

  5. My Increasing Disillusionment with the Planning, Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation of Large Dams, Especially as Illustrated by The World Bank—The Largest and Most Influential Financier of Large Dams

    • Thayer Scudder
    Pages 217-247

  6. Summary

    • Thayer Scudder
    Pages 249-253

  7. Postscript: In Search of a Career and Myself

    • Thayer Scudder
    Pages 255-274

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 275-284
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Keywords

About this book

This book highlights the first comparative long-term analysis of the negative impacts of large dams on riverine communities and on free-flowing rivers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Following the Foreword by Professor Asit K. Biswas, the first section covers the 1956–1973 period, when the author believed that large dams provided an exceptional opportunity for integrated river basin development. In turn, the second section (1976–1997) reflects the author’s increasing concerns about the magnitude of the socio-economic and environmental costs of large dams, while the third (1998–2018) discusses why large dams are in fact not cost-effective in the long term.

Reviews

“I enjoyed reading this book. It is well-written and intellectually stimulating. As an emerging scholar in large dams, I found this book very useful, particularly as it engages in a timeline of 60 years. It promises to be a good guide to my own planned long-term studies of large dams in Southern Africa.” (Joshua Matanzima, Water International, August 24, 2020)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

    Thayer Scudder

About the author

Prof. Thayer Scudder is an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the California Institute of Technology, USA. He is a leading World authority on dams and is the former Commissioner of the World Commission on Dams. His research interests are in the area of socioeconomic impacts of large dams, regional development, and community-based natural resource management.

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