Environmental Impact Assessment in Turkish Dam Planning

By supplying water and generating hydroelectricity, dams play a prominent role in Turkey’s economic and social development. Hydroelectric energy generation, for instance, enjoys high priority in the domestic energy mix, and it factors as one of the core elements in Turkey’s climate mitigation strategy because it compares favourably with fossil energies in terms of carbon emissions. As the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI) reasons: “(…) hydroelectric power is environment-friendly, clean, renewable, able to meet peak demands, highly efficient (over 90 percent), involves no fuel cost, is a balancer of energy prices, has a long life-span (200 years), its cost recovery is short-run (5-10 years) its operational costs are low (approximately 0.2 cent/kWh), and it is an indigenous source of energy which is (…) natural.”.