Regoverning the Existing Hydropower System: Integrating ecological, economic and societal aspects of sustainability (SusHydro)

  • Duration: 2020 - 2024
  • Status: Ongoing

SusHydro project creates interdisciplinary guidelines for sustainable governance of existing hydropower. It aims to integrate the ecological, economic, and social pillars of sustainability in a novel and innovative way. The project argues that the society surrounding hydropower has changed, but its governance has largely remained the same due to, for example, the strong permanence of hydropower permits and inadequate ecological knowledge.

Project management
Saija Koljonen, Syke
Project team
Jani Heino (Syke), Antti Belinskij (Consortium PI, UEF), Niko Soininen (UEF), Suvi-Tuuli Puharinen (UEF), Kaisa Huttunen (UEF), Iivo Vehviläinen (Aalto University), Janne Artell (PI Luke), Antti Iho (Luke), Tuija Lankia (Luke), Ari Huusko (Luke)
Financiers
Research Council of Finland
Partners
UEF, Luke
Subject area
Water, Nature, Research, Sustainabilty transformation

SusHydro project creates interdisciplinary guidelines for sustainable governance of existing hydropower. It aims to integrate the ecological, economic, and social pillars of sustainability in a novel and innovative way. The project argues that the society surrounding hydropower has changed, but its governance has largely remained the same due to, for example, the strong permanence of hydropower permits and inadequate ecological knowledge.

Ecological sustainability

We will study whole-community biodiversity (by eDNA) with fish and benthic macroinvertebrate analysis and assessment. Our aim is to reveal large scale ecosystem effects of hydropower and barriers within river networks.

SusHydro provides footsteps for regoverning the industry towards sustainable transformation.

The project is funded by the Academy of Finland.

More information

PI, Senior Research Scientist, Saija Koljonen, tel. +358 295 251 791, firstname.surename@syke.fi

Published 16.8.2021 / Updated 13.2.2025