Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2016-06-01 Reservoir Sedimentation: The Economics of Sustainability Matthew William George Brigham Young University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation George, Matthew William, "Reservoir Sedimentation: The Economics of Sustainability" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 5955. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5955 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Reservoir Sedimentation: The Economics of Sustainability Matthew William George A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Rollin H. Hotchkiss, Chair E. James Nelson Gus Williams Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Brigham Young University June 2016 Copyright © 2016 Matthew William George All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Reservoir Sedimentation: The Economics of Sustainability Matthew William George Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, BYU Master of Science Despite mounting demand for a more sustainable worldwide water supply system, available reservoir capacity is relentlessly diminishing due to sedimentation. This fact, coupled with a decrease in the rate of dam construction, indicate an impending water supply dilemma. In the future, dams should be designed following a life cycle management approach rather than the typical short-sighted design life technique. Neither sustainable reservoir lifespans nor intergenerational equity is achieved through conventional cost-benefit analyses (CBA), which render all benefits and costs projected to occur more than several decades into a project as negligible.