Industrialization of Rivers: A water system approach to hydropower development

In a letter dated 1906, one of the Swedish hydropower pioneers outlined his plan to build the country's largest hydropower plant in River Gullsp~ng. 2 A key element in the grand plan was to use Lake Skagern as a reservoir. In his letter, he described the design of the project. His plan was to turn Lake Skagern into"a water container "3 where the "Sunday water "4 was to be accumulated. Water flowing in to the "water container"during the day of rest was to be stored for further use in hydropower production during working days. By naming Lake Skagern"a water container", he conceptually distanced himself from designating it a lake, and by the new term he made an abstraction of the lake and described it as a body of measurement. By using the concept"Sunday water,'he also gave a new meaning to the water discharge. This glimpse from the pioneer days in hydropower development focuses on the extensive alterations of rivers all over the world (Dynesius & Nilsson, 1994). By introducing the concept of Industrializing Rivers this development, from the free flowing to the harnessed water system, will be analyzed. Secondly, the hydropower-producing river as a Large Technological

[1]  A. Jamison,et al.  The Making of the New Environmental Consciousness: A Comparative Study of the Environmental Movements in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands , 1993 .

[2]  Donald Worster,et al.  Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West , 1987 .

[3]  L. A. Teclaff.  The river basin in history and law , 1967 .

[4]  D. Pisani.  To Reclaim a Divided West: Water, Law, and Public Policy, 1848-1902 , 1992 .

[5]  Arne Kaijser,et al.  Industrialisering av älvar: Studier kring svensk vattenkraftutbyggnad 1900-1918@@@Industrialisering av alvar: Studier kring svensk vattenkraftutbyggnad 1900-1918 , 1998 .

[6]  R. Dunbar.  Forging New Rights in Western Waters , 1983 .

[7]  R. Mcpherson,et al.  River Flowing From The Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan , 2000 .

[8]  L. A. Teclaff.  Water law in historical perspective. , 1986 .

[9]  D. Worster.  Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History , 1990 .

[10]  Carl W. Condit,et al.  Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West , 1991 .

[11]  Thomas F. Glick,et al.  Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia. , 1971 .

[12]  Merritt Roe Smith,et al.  Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England , 1991 .

[13]  D. Pisani.  Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: Nationalizing the History of Water in the United States , 2000, Environmental History.

[14]  C. Nilsson,et al.  Fragmentation and Flow Regulation of River Systems in the Northern Third of the World , 1994, Science.

[15]  A. Wisdom.  The law of rivers and watercourses , 1975 .

[16]  D. Pisani.  Water, Land, and Law in the West: The Limits of Public Policy, 1850-1920 , 1996 .