Abstract
This paper, the first in a series provides the background of the project, reports on the early phases of construction with the descriptions of the pre and post flooded conditions related to vegetation and land cover types surrounding the reservoir. Currently there are plans to develop the so called “Lower Churchill Area” by establishing new power plants at Gull Island and at Muskrat Falls with associated reservoirs. These new plants would use the discharged water of the plant from Churchill Falls and the additional water collected from some of the Churchill River Basin. The information provided by these papers could have relevance to the environmental evaluation of these new developments. The Churchill Falls Hydro Project (called the “Upper Churchill Development”) in Labrador, Canada, was initiated in the late 1960s and the 5428-MW hydro generating plant constructed was then among the largest in the world. At that time, in general, not much attention was paid to the impact of such development on the flooding of vegetation especially forest stands. Both forested and un-forested terrestrial vegetation types were flooded (244 915 ha). Some islands were created and in addition portions of existing areas were flooded to form islands (74 075 ha) in the Main (Smallwood) Reservoir area. The flooded area of forest and un-forested land in the reservoir is 77% while the islands is 23 percent. The percentages of forested and un-forested areas lost to flooding are 64% and 36% respectively. The percent of commercial forests lost to flooding is approximately 1% and the non-commerci- al forests is 99% (with a total volume of approximately 10 million cubic meters of wood).
Highlights
The growing demand for electricity in the World places a high priority on the development of the most suitable sites for hydroelectric power generation
In the early phases of construction of the storage facilities and the power house several investigations and base line studies, to monitor the environmental impact of the corresponding engineering interventions associated with the project, were initiated and funded by the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation, abbreviated as [CF(L)Co]. Two of these studies dealt with the impact of flooding on vegetation in the Main called the Smallwood Reservoir. This current paper provides the background of the project starting with the distribution of the pre-flooded conditions related to vegetation and land cover types in and surrounding the Main Reservoir
The percentages of forested and un-forested areas lost to flooding are 64% and 36% respectively
Summary
The growing demand for electricity (clean energy) in the World places a high priority on the development of the most suitable sites for hydroelectric power generation. The construction of such power plants and the establishment of the associated storage facilities (reservoirs with dykes) cause significant changes in the environment, often affecting extensive areas. One of the major hydroelectric power developments took place at Churchill Falls In general, not much attention was paid to the impact of such development on vegetation (especially on forest stands), most of the research, concerning man made lakes, was directed towards the study of the aquatic ecosystems, the limnology, and the thermal characteristics in some of the recently established reservoirs (Oberg [1] and the Scientific Committee on Water Resources [2]).
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