ABSTRACT
Economic progress critically depends on the availability of water. The impact of energy availability influences the living conditions of communities to a large extent. Without electricity there can be no water-purification, no health-care and no pharmaceuticals. The lack of sustainable development in the energy sector increases the risks of climate change, resource wars and nuclear accidents. Hydropower schemes can be classified in different categories. They can be planned as single schemes or as multi-purpose schemes which are used for power generation, navigation, irrigation, water supply, flood control or recreation. Economic and ecological sustainability can be related through an eco-efficiency analysis. The global interconnectedness of production processes imposes that measures taken to improve one environmental aspect have effects on other environmental aspects. Power generated at a power plant can be used at the location of the plant itself, or can be fed into a power grid which distributes the electricity over a larger area.
