Sustainable Hydropower and Multipurpose Storage to meet Water, Food, and Energy Development Goals: A Program for Collaborative Research and Innovation (S¿MultiStor)

Regulation of water resources using dams and reservoirs played a major role in the socio-economic development of northern countries during the 20th Century, but practices of the time often led to undesired environmental and social impacts. Thousands more dams and reservoirs are planned for construction in the next decades, mainly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and there is a threat that many of the unwanted impacts experienced in the last century will be repeated in this new wave of dam construction, perhaps with even more severe consequences. We have assembled a consortium of leading international partner organizations responsible for developing and testing decision¿support tools that have the potential to make a measurable impact on sustainable development. S-MultiStor will create a common research and innovation platform where researchers from UNESCO-IHE and southern partner institutions engage with leading international initiatives in a structured program of collaboration. We are proposing a 3 year program to investigate and demonstrate improved approaches to sustainable multipurpose storage, including both gray and green storage.}