Despite hydropower being a renewable energy source, hydroelectric power plants have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. These include changes in the ecosystem, biodiversity, land use, water regimes, chemical properties of the water, water temperature, groundwater level, flooding, erosion, soil, terrain, evaporation, microclimate, seismic hazard and sedimentation. In my final seminar paper, I focused mainly on land use and biodiversity changes in the area surrounding the Brežice hydroelectric power plant. I also compared the land use impacts with the impacts in the area surrounding the Krško hydroelectric power plant. GIS analysis showed that in the case of Brežice, water surface area had greatly increased because of the widening of the river bed and the surface of the urban area had increased because of the dam, power plant building and edge of the reservoir. On the other hand, the surface areas of agricultural land, forest tree plantation and perpetual meadow decreased. Located on the Brežice field, this hydroelectric plant’s reservoir is much larger than the one at Krško, which is in a narrower part of the Sava valley, meaning there was not much space for river bed widening. Therefore, environmental impacts of the Krško power plant are smaller than the impacts of the one near Brežice. The latter’s impacts on biodiversity are important because numerous different habitats are located near it. Some are protected. Multiple substitution habitats have been created. Key ecosystems in this area are dry meadows, where orchids grow.
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