Future of Large Dams

Symbols of progress and a necessary evil or inherently flawed destroyers of ecosystems and societies? Thayer Scudder wades into the large dam debate with unprecedented authority. Armed with decades of experience, a vast array of cases studies and data Scudder examines all aspects of the costs, benefits and risks to ecosystems, societies and economies of large dam development projects. He covers the structure of the decision making process, the planning, implementation and governance of assets, state-of-the-art procedures for addressing environmental, institutional, political and social issues, and the highly contentious issue of dam-induced resettlement, illuminated by a statistical analysis of 50 cases.