water Article Freshwater Ecosystems versus Hydropower Development: Environmental Assessments and Conservation Measures in the Transboundary Amur River Basin Eugene A. Simonov 1,2,* , Oxana I. Nikitina 3,* and Eugene G. Egidarev 3,4 1 Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition, Dalian 116650, China 2 Daursky Biosphere Reserve, 674480 Nizhny Tsasuchey, Russia 3 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Russia), 109240 Moscow, Russia 4 Pacific Geographical Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 690041 Vladivostok, Russia * Correspondence:
[email protected] (E.A.S.);
[email protected] (O.I.N.) Received: 18 June 2019; Accepted: 25 July 2019; Published: 29 July 2019 Abstract: Hydropower development causes a multitude of negative effects on freshwater ecosystems, and to prevent and minimize possible damage, environmental impact assessments must be conducted and optimal management scenarios designed. This paper examines the impacts of both existing and proposed hydropower development on the transboundary Amur River basin shared by Russia, China, and Mongolia, including the effectiveness of different tools and measures to minimize damage. It demonstrates that the application of various assessment and conservation tools at the proper time and in the proper sequence is the key factor in mitigating and minimizing the environmental impacts of dams. The tools considered include basin-wide assessments of hydropower impacts, the creation of protected areas on rivers threatened by dam construction, and environmental flows. The results of this work show how the initial avoidance and mitigation of hydropower impacts at early planning stages are more productive than the application of any measures during and after dam construction, that the assessment of hydropower impacts must be performed at a basin level rather than be limited to a project implementation site, and that the full spectrum of possible development scenarios should be considered.