Valoração dos danos ambientais de hidroeletricas

According to the Brazilian Energy Balance 2004 (MME, 2004), the importance of electric energy within the national context in 2004, can be expressed by the consumption of 76,2% of total electric energy for the industrial and services sectors, which represents 83% of the NGP.This means there is a relevant relationship between Brazil's wealth and the generation of hydroelectric energy, since a large slice of the wealth produced in the country is directly dependent on electric energy, which in turn is predominantly produced by means of hydroelectric plants (76% in 2004).However, this energy generation incurs in environmental costs that are often incorporated neither in the economic nor in the environmental analysis.So the aim of this study has been to determine the values for the environmental damage caused by hydroelectric plants, from two points of view: that of environmental economy and that of an offshoot of ecological economy, dubbed systems ecology.This follows along the lines of the debate between the two main theoretical lines in this area's economy: the weak and the strong sustainability, adding elements for the discussion about the value of environmental resources and services.Results show the importance of the valuation of the environmental damage resulting from the implantation and operation of hydroelectric plants, from the point of view of both the monetary and eMergetic analyses.What is generally observed is that the main relative environmental damage is associated to regions of still preserved natural forest (with evident focus on the Amazon forest), completely ruling out the implantation of a hydroelectric plant.Another important point raised is that a Small Central Hydroelectric Plant does not, necessarily, induce a relatively low environmental cost.Similarly, a large hydroelectric plant, understood as great installed potency, does not necessarily incur in large relative environmental damage.As a conclusion, it is stated that environmental valoration, even with the proper limitations, remains a very useful tool, not as a bridge between the economy and ecology, but as a source for the discussion about sustainability.x 1 CAPÍTULO I -INTRODUÇÃOThe fact that the economic process consists of a continuous and irrevocable transformation of low into high entropy has some important consequences which should be obvius to anyone willing to descend for a moment from the higher spheres of elucubrated growth models to the level of elementary facts

Hydroelectricity · Global Energy and Sustainability Research · Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis · Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy

• The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

  Open Access•R Costanza, Ralph C D’arge et al.•Nature•1997

  Añadir item

• Issues in ecosystem valuation

  Open Access•Gail Bingham, Gail E Bingham et al.•Ecological Economics•1995

  Añadir item

• Towards an ecological theory of unequal exchange

  Open Access•A Hornborg•Ecological Economics•1998

  Añadir item

• Measuring sustainability

  Open Access•Robert K Kaufmann, Cutler J Cleveland•Ecological Economics•1995

  Añadir item

• Guidelines for the Economic Valuation of Nontimber Tropical-Forest Products

  Ricardo Godoy, Ruben N Lubowski et al.•Current Anthropology•1992

  Añadir item