Identifying disciplinary silos in the energy-water nexus: Do energy systems researchers and river systems researchers “talk” to each other about hydropower?

Adrienne Marshall

adriennemarshall@mines.edu

Adrianne Kroepsch

akroepsch@mines.edu

Hydropower plays an important role in decarbonizing electricity in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, but also presents major environmental challenges to river systems. Hydroelectric dams and reservoirs have major impacts on streamflow dynamics, river function, water resources users, and river ecologies. Different research communities studying  hydropower often have drastically different expectations for the future of hydropower in terms of operations and whether hydropower capacity should be expanded or reduced, as well as on projections for how hydropower dams should be operated alongside renewable energy sources. In this project, we will conduct a bibliometric network analysis of research on hydropower to identify distinct research communities that are studying  hydropower, and to determine the extent to which they interact with each other via coauthorship or citation. Identifying and characterizing these disciplinary silos will catalyze a better understanding of where intellectual disconnects and blind spots exist in hydropower research. Identifying these research silos and gaps is an important step toward improving interdisciplinary synthesis that can generate better hydropower predictions and problem-solving. Our research questions include:

1. To what extent do energy systems and river systems researchers interact on hydropower research?
2. What are the most glaring disconnects between these research communities (i.e., topics on which they both work but don’t work together)?  What are the most obvious blind spots for these research communities (i.e., topics on which neither group works, or only one does)?
3. On what topics do they interact? What research methods are involved?
4. Which type of research is cited most frequently, disciplinary or cross-disciplinary?

The student will meet regularly with Dr.s Marshall and Kroepsch. We expect to have a standing weekly meeting with the student with both faculty in attendance while the student is getting started, and then with one faculty member as point person once the project is rolling.  In addition, the student will be invited to attend weekly lab group meetings in Dr. Marshall’s group, so will have opportunities to interact regularly with graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow in PI Marshall’s lab. The student will also be introduced to Dr. Kroepsch’s graduate students and looped into group activities on an ad hoc basis. Marshall and Kroepsch will also meet regularly with the student together as described in the student mentoring section below.  Marshall and Kroepsch will help the student understand the interdisciplinary nature of the project, how the research questions/findings are situated in each of their fields, and the value of collaborative interdisciplinary scholarship.  Both faculty will serve as engaged mentors for the student.

Grand Challenge: Provide access to clean water.

Similar research methods are used in: Marshall, A. M., M. Foard, C. M. Cooper, P. Edwards, S. L. Hirsch, M. Russell, and T. E. Link. “Climate Change Literature and Information Gaps in Mountainous Headwaters of the Columbia River Basin.” Regional Environmental Change 20, no. 4 (November 17, 2020): 134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01721-7.

Adrienne Marshall, adriennemarshall@mines.edu | Adrianne Kroepsch, akroepsch@mines.edu