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Rethinking hydropower to satisfy energy, climate, and biodiversity goals
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Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
March 19-21, 2025
Working Group Meeting
Photo by Free Nomad on Unsplash
The global push for decarbonization has positioned hydropower as a key component of low-carbon energy transitions, with an anticipated doubling of hydropower capacity by 2050. However, hydropower expansion threatens river ecosystems, creating tradeoffs between energy, GHG emissions, and biodiversity. This working group will analyze strategies for integrated hydropower, such as floating photovoltaics, pumped-storage hydropower, and retrofitting non-powered dams to enhance energy efficiency without further damming free-flowing rivers. Using AI-driven tools, we aim to assess how these alternatives mitigate tradeoffs, identifying river basins with the highest potential and evaluating their role in boosting climate resilience of hydropower in the face of changing river hydrology.
The working group meeting will be hosted by the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington and will bring together researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of energy systems, biodiversity conservation, sustainability and climate adaptation. Our discussions will incorporate diverse perspectives needed to inform sustainable energy transitions, building on work supported by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Schmidt Sciences, and the Institute for Computational Sustainability at Cornell University.
Time
Topic
Presenter/Facilitator
12:00 AM - 13:15 AM
Lunch
09:00 AM - 09:20 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
09:20 AM - 09:40 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
09:40 AM - 10:00 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
10:00 AM - 10:20 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
10:20 AM - 10:40 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
10:40 AM - 10:55 AM
Cofee Break
10:55 AM - 11:15 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
11:15 AM - 11:35 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
11:35 AM - 11:55 AM
Discussion (Conceptual themes / frameworks and Problem formulation)
Felipe Pacheco
11:55 AM - 12:00 AM
Group Photo
09:20 AM - 09:40 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
10:55 AM - 11:15 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
10:55 AM - 11:15 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
10:40 AM - 10:55 AM
Cofee Break
09:40 AM - 10:00 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
09:40 AM - 10:00 AM
Welcome, broader vision, and meeting goals
Alex Flecker
*Updates to the agenda are coming soon
Meeting Participants
Rafael is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Much of the work in his lab explores sustainable solutions in water-based energy systems—from traditional hydropower to emerging applications like floating solar power. His overarching goal is to advance the understanding of practical strategies that enhance climate resilience, land-use efficiency, and other positive outcomes. To achieve this, his research team combines fieldwork, geospatial analysis, and data science to investigate factors such as greenhouse gas footprints, land use, water quality and quantity, hydrological changes, and biodiversity.
Rafael Almeida
Indiana University
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Caroline Arantes is an Assistant Professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at West Virginia University (WVU). She employs interdisciplinary approaches to study aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity responses to major stressors, developing solutions for conservation challenges across geographic regions and scales. Her research has primarily focused on the impacts of environmental change, including hydrological and land cover alterations, as well as overfishing, on Amazonian floodplain rivers.
Caroline Arantes
West Virginia University
Simone Cardoso is an Assistant Professor in the Dep. of Zoology at the Federal Univ. of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, and a visiting professor at Indiana Univ. Her research focuses on advancing the understanding and predictability of how anthropogenic changes affect the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Using planktonic communities as model organisms, she investigates a wide range of environmental pressures, including eutrophication, invasive species, GHG emissions, mining tailings, emerging pollutants, and the ecological implications of floating solar plants. Her project at Cornell focuses on the effects of floating photovoltaics on macrophytes, phytoplankton and zooplankton communities.
Simone Cardoso
Federal Univ. of Juiz de Fora
Dr. Kamal Chowdhury is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) at the Univ. of Maryland. His research focuses on resilient operations and sustainable planning of water and energy systems considering the effects of transition to low-carbon, socioeconomic changes, regional coordination, and climate change. He also explores socio-environmental implications of water-energy infrastructure for a sustainable transition to low-carbon. These works support policy decisions at global to sub-national scales. As part of these works, he develops and implements state-of-the-art models including integrated assessment models, power system planning models, and hydrologic-water-management models. Before joining ESSIC, he completed postdoctoral jobs at the Univ. of California Santa Barbara and Singapore Univ. of Technology and Design. He holds a PhD in civil engineering from the Univ. of Newcastle, Australia, a graduate certificate in engineering geology from Univ. of Twente, Netherlands, and a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh.
Kamal Chowdhury
University of Maryland
Augusto received a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Uberlândia (Brazil). He’s pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Science at Indiana University since Fall 2024. Augusto’s research focuses primarily on environmental benefits and tradeoffs hydroelectricity and VREs (Variable Renewable Energy) with emphasis on floating solar power.
Augusto Del Claro
Indiana University
Carolina R.C. Doria is a Biologist with PhD in Socio-environmental Science from the Pará Federal University (Brazil). Since 1998, she has been a professor in the Biology Department, Rondônia Federal University, coordinating the Ichthyology and Fisheries Laboratory, and the Fish collection. Also, she is a member of the Ação Ecológica Guaporé(ONG) and the International Research Network on Amazonian Dams. She has worked for around 30 years with environmental conservation and development on the Amazon. Her research interests include ichthyology and fisheries, community-based management of natural resources, dams ‘impacts, citizen science, governance and resilience of socio-ecological systems in the Amazon.
Carolina Doria
Federal University of Rondonia
Alex Flecker is a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell Univ. and the Associate Director of Cornell Univ. AI for Science Institute. He is a freshwater ecosystem ecologist and sustainability scientist with more than 30 years of experience working on the ecology and conservation of river ecosystems. Much of his work focuses on freshwater systems in tropical South America with research themes that include the role of biodiversity in shaping riverine structure and function, vulnerability of tropical and temperate rivers to climate change, flow ecology of river ecosystems, strategic basin planning of energy and food systems, and tradeoffs between hydropower and environmental objectives.
Alex Flecker
Cornell University
Etienne Fluet-Chouinard is a freshwater ecologist with expertise in using geospatial and Earth observation technologies to study the global water and carbon cycles. Etienne is particularly interested in questions relating to the hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry of wetland ecosystems across the globe. In the past, he has also studied inland fishery harvests and impact of hydropower on river fragmentation. Dr. Fluet-Chouinard earned a PhD from the Center for Limnology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2023, Etienne joined the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he works on modeling carbon fluxes in coastal wetlands and headwater streams.
Etienne Fluet-Chouinard
Pacific Northwest Nat. Lab.
Dr. Stefano Galelli is a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, where he leads the Critical Infrastructure Systems Lab. His career has spanned across Europe, Asia, and North America. A graduate of Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering (2004, 2007) and a Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technology (2011), it was eventually overseas in Singapore where he first established his career. There, he worked as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore (2011-2013), and then later, as a faculty member of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (2013-2023). After more than a decade in Asia, Dr. Galelli’s career brought him to North America. In addition to his appointment at Cornell, he is an Adjunct Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.
Stefano Galelli
Cornell University
Carla Gomes is the Ronald C. and Antonia V. Nielsen Professor of Computing and Information Science, the director of the Institute for Computational Sustainability at Cornell University, and co-director of the Cornell University AI for Science Institute. Her research area is Artificial Intelligence with a focus on large-scale constraint-based reasoning, optimization, and machine learning. Recently, she has become deeply immersed in the establishment of the new field of Computational Sustainability and in AI for Science.
Carla Gomes
Cornell University
Sebastian Heilpern is an ecologist and sustainability scientist focused on the causes, consequences and conservation of biodiversity. He is particularly interested in the intersection between aquatic ecosystems, fisheries, food security and renewable energy. Currently an Eric & Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, he received a PhD from Columbia University, an M.S. from the University of Chicago, and has over 15 years of collaborating with NGOs on issues related to freshwater conservation in the Amazon.
Sebastian Heilpern
Cornell University
Guido completed his B.Sc. at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia and an M.Sc. in Modeling of Ecological Systems from the University of Toulouse, France. Guido is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His dissertation looks to understand the functional drivers of freshwater biodiversity responses to global environmental change. Guido uses data science and synthesis tools to leverage global databases of fish surveys, environmental datasets (climate, flow, and land covers), and species traits. He aims to gain insights into the complex ecological processes that drive freshwater biodiversity loss, especially in the tropics, and develop more effective conservation strategies to protect it.
Guido Herrera
University of Tennessee
Rafael Kelman has been an integral part of PSR since 1997, stepping into the role of executive director in 2008. Over the years, he has focused on developing and coordinating several projects while also contributing to the company’s administration. His academic background includes a Doctor of Science in Systems Engineering with a focus on Optimization from COPPE/UFRJ, a Master of Science in Water Resources from the same institution, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from UFRJ. Professionally, he has worked as a consultant for organizations such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, gaining experience in over thirty countries. His work has included technical studies in power systems expansion and operation, as well as the development of computational models. He has also explored topics such as decarbonization, water resources, infrastructure and international studies, contributing to a diverse range of projects. In addition, Kelman has participated in national and international workshops and seminars as a speaker. He has also authored articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings, sharing his knowledge with a broader audience.
Rafael Kelman
PSR
Juliana is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Environment at Florida International University (FIU). She has been studying the social-ecological factors influencing tropical system conservation for the past 20 years. Her research focuses on freshwater and forest ecology, traditional knowledge, resource management, and the anthropogenic pressures impacting ecosystem conservation and local livelihoods. Currently, she is collaborating in an integrative initiative, co-developing efforts to understand the social-ecological dynamics of freshwater ecosystems in a transboundary biocultural riverscape at the triple frontier of Peru, Brazil, and Colombia, in Western Amazon.
Juliana Laufer
Florida International University
Zhiying Li is an assistant professor in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. She and her research group study hydroclimatic extreme events and water availability in a warming climate, focusing on their characteristics, drivers, and impacts through various modeling approaches and geospatial analysis. Her most recent project examines drought in a nonstationary climate.
Zhiying Li
Indiana Univesity
Pete works at the interface between aquatic biodiversity science, fisheries science, and conservation planning. He has studied rivers and lakes on four continents, working closely with NGO and agency partners. His goal is to achieve sustainable use of freshwater resources while safeguarding the integrity and biodiversity of lake and river ecosystems.
Pete McIntyre
Cornell University
Ryan McManamay is an Associate Professor within the Department of Environmental Sciences at Baylor University. Ryan is a spatial ecologist that studies human-environmental systems in order to balance ecosystem and societal needs. His primary research focus is understanding past and future anthropogenic changes to ecosystems through urbanization and infrastructure development, and explores strategies aimed to synergize sustainability and resilience endpoints. Previously, he was a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for 6 years, the lead of the Energy-Water Nexus theme within the Urban Dynamics Institute at ORNL, and a Joint Faculty member of the Bredesen Center at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Ryan received an M.S. in stream ecology (Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech) and a Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife (Virginia Tech). He is currently an Associate Editor of Earth's Future (American Geophysical Union).
Ryan McManamay
Baylor University
Imanol is a Postdoctoral Associate at the
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at Cornell University. Imanol has a background as a freshwater conservationist studying spatial patterns of freshwater biodiversity and threats. Currently, he is a Schmidt Ai for Science fellow at Cornell studying protected area expansion to maximize the benefit for freshwaters. Before Cornell, Imanol completed his PhD in Pamplona, Spain, where he is originally from, studying the conservation status of freshwater fishes. Passionate about spatial data analysis, Imanol’s interests also include the analysis of biogeography of museum specimens and the etymology of fish names.
Imanol Miqueleiz
Cornell University
Marcela Miranda, Ph.D., is an ecologist specializing in the sustainability of freshwater ecosystems. Her expertise includes aquatic eutrophication, cyanobacterial bloom mitigation, and biogeochemical cycles. She is currently a visiting researcher at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University (USA, NY) and an associate researcher at the Environmental Impacts and Vulnerability Division of the National Institute for Space Research (BRA, SP). Collaborating with an interdisciplinary team, she explores pathways to a sustainable future, addressing critical environmental challenges such as global change and the water-energy-food nexus.
Marcela Miranda
Cornell University
As global lead scientist for freshwater, Jeff works across the WWF network and with external partners to direct research that can strengthen conservation strategies and to integrate science into freshwater programs and projects. Jeff’s scientific and policy research has been published in journals such as Science, Nature, and BioScience and he is the lead author of the book Floodplains: processes and management for ecosystem services, published in 2017. Jeff strives to communicate the challenges and opportunities for nature conservation through op-eds, articles and blog posts in such places as the New York Times, Outside, National Geographic, and the Guardian. He is a regular contributor to the energy section of Forbes.com. Jeff holds a PhD in ecosystem science from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in biology from Duke University.
Jeff Opperman
World Wildlife Fund
Felipe Pacheco is an ecologist and sustainability scientist advancing practical solutions for water, energy, and food security under climate change. After completing his Ph.D. in Earth System Science at the National Inst. for Space Research, Brazil, he began an Eric & Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Fellowship at Cornell Univ., where he investigates how changes in river flow may compromise hydropower generation in river basins worldwide where hydropower will be important for transitioning to a less carbon-intensive energy sector. He works to identify climate-smart strategies for dam development that mitigate energy shortfalls and reduce socio-environmental impacts, aiming to balance environmental integrity with societal needs for a more sustainable future.
Felipe Pacheco
Cornell University
Dr. Todd V. Royer is an environmental scientist specializing in water chemistry, water pollution, and effects of land use on water quality and freshwater habitats. He is a professor in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, and currently serves as executive associate dean for the O’Neill School.
Todd Royer
Indiana University
Dr. Rafael J. P. Schmitt is an assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Program. Previously, he led the water research program at Stanford’s Natural Capital Project. His research concerns interconnections between river systems and societies, with a special focus on sustainable water infrastructure and the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus. Working across scales and geographic regions, Rafael leverages his background in hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, water resources engineering, and information technology to develop novel and interdisciplinary approaches to pressing environmental challenges. Beyond authoring nearly 40 peer-reviewed papers, he has worked intensively with multi-lateral organizations, governments, and non-profit organizations to make his research decision-relevant.
Rafael Schmitt
UC Santa Barbara
Suresh A. Sethi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Science and Director of the Aquatic Research & Environmental Assessment Center at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He works at the interface of data science, ecology, and socioeconomic disciplines to advance solutions to marine and freshwater fisheries sustainability challenges. His research spans scales from local fisheries case studies in the Great Lakes basin, to continental scale work on Amazon aquatic ecosystems, to global work on biodiversity conservation financing.
Suresh Sethi
Brooklyn College
Steve Thomas is the Bishop Professor of Aquatic Biology and the Director of the Center for Freshwater Studies at the University of Alabama. As a stream ecologist, he focuses on understanding how the ecological properties of one location influence downstream conditions. Water flow is a key driver of lotic structure and function, linking upstream habitats to downstream ecosystems and connecting rivers to their floodplains. Steve’s research delves into this by investigating how the cycling, retention, and transport of solutes and organic particles are shaped by lotic communities.
Steve Thomas
University of Alabama
Aline holds a Ph.D. in Remote Sensing from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research and is particularly interested in remote sensing applications that enhance the monitoring and conservation of aquatic ecosystems. Her current work focuses on using satellite imagery to quantify impacts of floating solar arrays on aquatic environments.
Aline Valerio
Indiana University
Tom Wild is a Senior Research Scientist at PNNL-JGCRI, and he is jointly appointed on the research faculty at the Univ. of Maryland (UMD), where he directs the Complex Systems Lab. His research focuses on developing sustainable solutions to water resources and environmental systems challenges. Rather than studying these challenges in isolation, his work considers water’s dynamic, uncertain, multi‐sector interactions with energy, land, climate, and socioeconomic systems across diverse spatiotemporal scales, from local to global. His research has spanned planning and management challenges in water resources and environmental systems, energy-water-land systems, and deep decarbonization (i.e., climate change mitigation). This research has contributed to developing sustainable hydropower systems, identifying and mitigating water-energy-food tradeoffs and conflicts, managing surface water quality, equitably sharing transboundary resources, and identifying pathways for deep decarbonization to mitigate the impacts of climate change. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell Univ. in civil engineering, and a B.S. degree from the Univ. of Maryland in civil engineering.
Thomas B. Wild
University of Maryland
Sushobhan holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kathmandu University in Nepal and is pursuing a dual master’s degree in Environmental Science and Public Affairs at Indiana University, with concentration in energy and climate change solutions. Prior to joining IU, he worked as a research assistant at Energize Nepal, program funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. His current research focuses on integrating floating solar PV with hydropower in Nepal.
Sushobhan Bhattarai
Indiana University
Project Team
Rafael Almeida
Indiana University
Hector Angarita
Stanford University
Simone Cardoso
Federal University of Juiz de Fora
Kamal Chowdhury
Augusto Del Claro
Indiana University
Alex Flecker
Cornell University
Stefano Galelli
Cornell University
Carla Gomes
Cornell University
Sebastian Heilpern
Cornell University
Rafael Kelman
PSR, Inc.
Imanol Miqueleiz
Cornell University
Marcela Miranda
Cornell University
Felipe S. Pacheco
Cornell University
Todd V. Royer
Indiana University
Rafael J.P. Schmitt
UC Santa Barbara
Suresh A. Sethi
Brooklyn College
Aline de Matos Valerio
Indiana University
Thomas B. Wild
University of Maryland
Peter McIntyre
Cornell University
Thomas B. Wild
University of Maryland
Thomas B. Wild
University of Maryland
Thomas B. Wild
University of Maryland
Meeting Venue and Hotel
We will arrange airport pick-up and drop-off services, as well as hotel accommodations. Attendees traveling to Bloomington will stay at the Biddle Hotel on the IU campus, which is conveniently situated within walking distance of both downtown Bloomington and the meeting venue at the O’Neill School.
Click here for directions from the hotel to O'Neill School
Link to O'Neill School website
Biddle Hotel
First Floor Commons, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs - access through E 10th St
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