Social impacts of large dam projects: a comparison of international case studies and implications for best practice.

This paper applies the tool of social impact assessment (SIA) to understand the effects of large dam projects on human communities. We draw upon data from two recent SIA projects: the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in Southern Africa, and the Manwan Dam, located on the upper Mekong River in southwestern China. These two cases allow us to examine the social impacts of large dam projects through time and across various geographical scales.

Modeling the costs and benefits of dam construction from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Although the benefits of dam construction are numerous, particularly in the context of climate change and growing global demand for electricity, recent experience has shown that many dams have serious negative environmental, human, and political consequences. Despite an extensive literature documenting the benefits and costs of dams from a single disciplinary perspective, few studies have simultaneously evaluated the distribution of biophysical, socio-economic, and geopolitical implications of dams. To meet the simultaneous demands for water, energy, and environmental protection well into the future, a broader view of dams is needed.

Cancer and non-cancer mortality of chimney sweeps in Copenhagen.

This is a cohort study of the mortality among chimney sweeps in Copenhagen, Denmark, during 1958-77. Nearly all the chimney sweeps started in the trade around the age of 15, and so this age gives the time of first exposure to the environmental conditions of the trade. The analysis applies a continuous time model with stratification by cause of death (cancer, non-cancer), time and age, where cumulative mortality rates are derived from current mortality tables.