151498 20251017144630.0 doi 10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107748 sideral 126234 ART-2021-126234 eng Briones-Hidrovo A. Hydropower and environmental sustainability: A holistic assessment using multiple biophysical indicators 2021 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted Along with other low-carbon combustion-free energy sources, hydropower is considered a valuable tool for mitigating the current climate and ecological crisis and achieve environmental sustainability. However, it is still unclear to what extent hydropower is or not environmentally sustainable. The literature reveals i) that no truly holistic assessments have been carried out and ii) that there are contradictory results and conclusions. The present study addresses this gap by conducting a holistic assessment, using eight biophysical indicators of different approaches, and taking two different hydropower plant schemes as study cases. The results of the assessment show that the run-of-river hydropower plant study case is by far more environmentally sustainable than the dam hydropower plant scheme. As hydropower schemes and sizes vary, it is highlighted the importance of including as many indicators as possible to ensure broader and complete assessments and the avoidance of bias in the conclusions and ease comparison with other low-carbon combustion-free energy sources and their technologies. Moreover, the present study addresses how and within which parameters the environmental sustainability of hydropower is usually determined. The complementary set of indicators provided here, which have different scope and complexity, could be adopted for improving future decision-making in energy policies and specifically for hydropower. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es 6.263 2021 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 67 / 279 = 0.24 2021 Q1 T1 1.284 2021 Ecology 2021 Q1 Decision Sciences (miscellaneous) 2021 Q1 8.4 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Uche J. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0003-4408-6881 Martínez-Gracia A. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0003-1238-8746 5004 590 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Ingeniería Mecánica Área Máquinas y Motores Térmi. 127 (2021), 306059 [10 pp.] Ecol. Indic. Ecological Indicators 1470-160X 2443095 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/151498/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 2669539 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/151498/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:151498 articulos driver 2025-10-17-14:26:18 ARTICLE