Sound Planning Processes

Dam Standards: A Rights-Based Approach

Thursday, February 13, 2014
When large dams are built, increasingly, companies, banks, and governments commit to follow internationally-recognized standards for such projects. Some of these standards are voluntary, and sometimes the financing or support for a dam project is conditional upon complying with them. But what exactly are dam standards, who makes them, and how can civil society use them? "Dam Standards: A Rights-Based Approach" attempts to summarize the strongest social and environmental standards related to each stage of a dam's project cycle: from strategic planning, to project analysis, to implementation, op

An Introduction to Integrated Resources Planning

Monday, November 11, 2013
Integrated Resources Planning (IRP) is a public process in which planners work together with other interested parties to identify and prepare energy options that serve the highest possible public good. In the process, they establish scope, investigate options, prepare and evaluate integrated plans, select preferred plans, and establish mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and iterate plans as conditions change. The IRP method was developed in the 1980s in response to repeated cases of power plants that were not needed and experienced serious cost and time overruns. In contrast to the limited cho

Protecting Rivers & Rights: World Commission on Dams Recommendations in Action

Thursday, July 1, 2010
The most comprehensive guidelines for large dams that protect the rights of river-dependent communities were outlined by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in 2000. Ten years later, International Rivers is happy to announce a new briefing kit for activists and allies, "Protecting Rivers and Rights: The World Commission on Dams Recommendations in Action," as part of our WCD+10 activities to move the dams debate forward. The purpose of this publication is to provide activists with concrete examples of where and how the WCD principles have been applied, and what happened when they were ignored.

The World Commission on Dams

Nelson Mandela and Prof. Kader Asmal launch the World Commission on Dams final report in 2000.
The World Commission on Dams (WCD) established the most comprehensive guidelines for dam building. The WCD's final report describes an innovative framework for planning water and energy projects that is intended to protect dam-affected people and the environment, and ensure that the benefits from dams are more equitably distributed. The WCD recommendations form the basis for many decision-making processes for dams around the world and constitute international soft law.
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