HyPeak: a science-policy network to promote sustainable hydropeaking

Hypeak is a non-profit, voluntarily based network of scientists from several countries, which specifically aims to translate the results of hydropeaking research into practice and policy. Given the complexity of hydropeaking, a multidisciplinary approach is required to tackle hydropeaking impacts, to propose mitigation strategies, and to support decision-making on hydropower based on hydropeaking. However, so far stronger links between disciplines have been insufficiently developed. This concerns, in particular, the social and economic sciences, which should be integrated into the biophysical research on hydropeaking (tackling, for instance, public acceptance, power markets projections based on climate change). Transnationality is another key word in the Hypeak approach, because electricity markets are transnational and complex, and because often rivers need to be sustainably-managed on a large geographical scale. What we expect from the network is to develop research effective in promoting a more sustainable hydropeaking through the mitigation of the impacts of existing schemes, and through helping planning sustainable new ones. To do so, the activities of the Hypeak network will foster research tackling, for instance: 1) the assessment of environmental effects and related socio-economic issues of hydropeaking at various spatial and temporal scales; 2) the improvement of mitigation measures and management strategies; 3) the promotion of environmentally-sustainable approaches to hydropeaking; 4) the provision of recommendations for national and international policies, and the support to their integration. To help developing this type of effective research, we have identified some high priority tasks: 1) Compile an overview of the localization and typology of hydropeaking at a continental scale; 2) Standardize tools characterizing hydropeaking regime; 3) Identify the most informative indicators for assessing hydropeaking impacts on rivers; 4) Advance the development of technical approaches to limit the negative impacts of hydropower plant operation on river ecosystems and of procedures allowing to select the most locally-appropriate approaches; 5) Elaborate inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to find a compromise between hydropower plant operation and ecological sustainability; 6) Improve the efficiency of the knowledge and tool transfer between researchers and practitioners