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To clear or not to clear vegetation prior to

impoundment? Feed-back experience on the
on the Nam Theun II reservoir (Lao PDR)
CONFERENCE PAPER OCTOBER 2011

3 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
Stephane Descloux

Vincent Chanudet

lectricit de France (EDF)

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To clear or not to clear vegetation prior to impoundment?

Feed-back experience on the on the Nam Theun II
reservoir (Lao PDR)
Olivier Salignat
Environnemental and Social Expert
Electricit de France
Centre dIngnirie Hydraulique
Savoie Technolac
73373 Le Bourget du Lac
FRANCE

Stephane Descloux
Environmental Expert
id.

Vincent Chanudet
Environmental Expert
id.

1. Introduction
The Nam Theun 2 reservoir filling started in April 2008, almost two years prior to the beginning of Commercial
Operation. At Full supply level, the reservoir covers 450km2, vs. 80 km2 at Minimum Operating Level.
Prior to impoundment, the inundation area was covered mainly by agricultural soil, temporary wetlands,
degraded forest and tropical forest.
Reservoirs are known, particularly in their first years, to impact negatively the water quality. This change is
directly related to the degradation of organic matter, pre-existing from the inundation area and to a lesser extent
brought by the reservoir tributaries.
In order to minimize the water quality degradation in the future reservoir, various options were considered for
the NT2 reservoir. One of the key issues related to the biomass in the inundation area. A simple approach would
dictate that the less residual biomass, the better the water quality. Removal of the vegetation would therefore
seem to be the main solution for preservation of the quality of the future reservoir. It appears however that this
approach may not be appropriate, for several reasons:
- Only a small fraction of the rapidly degradable biomass is located in the aerial vegetation
- Cutting the vegetation alone does not address the question of disposal of this biomass :
o burning is the option most often considered, but it has very significant impacts;
o exportation of the biomass is not practically feasible
- Clearance of very large areas is technically very challenging,
- This activity would have significant environmental and social impacts
- Residues from logging activity may impact operation of the powerhouse
The cost/benefits balance of systematic vegetation clearance was therefore considered as unfavourable in the
case of NT2.
Vegetation clearance however took place on selected areas of the future reservoir for social purposes (fishing
areas, transportation corridors). Trees of commercial value were also timbered before flooding.
The management of water quality on the reservoir and in downstream areas was instead addressed through
engineering features, incorporated in the design of the project :
- A multi-level water intake for the riparian release
- A water intake in the upper layers of the reservoir for the turbined flow
- Aerating devices (cone valve, aerating weirs, hydraulic jumps, etc...) for the downstream waters.
Last but not least, a fill and flush strategy was implemented for two years prior to Commercial Operation Date.
This consisted in filling and progressively flushing 3 times the full reservoir volume, downstream of the dam
where turbulence is high and natural aeration occurs very quickly.
The computation of Green House Gas emissions for various scenarios of biomass removal for a similar reservoir
in tropical area shows that GHG emissions are greater when biomass is cut, and subsequently either burnt or
exported, as this removal only accelerates the degradation of the biomass (and release of GHGs) that would
otherwise remain trapped in dead trees, as they require decades to degrade underwater (when they degrade at
all).

2. Description of the reservoir land cover mapping

The Nam Theun Reservoir is located on the Nakai Plateau. It has a live capacity of 3,530 hm3, accounting for
80% of the total volume and representing slightly less than half the average annual runoff (7,527 hm 3).
At Full Supply Level (FSL - 538 masl), the reservoir covers an area of 450 km2. The generation of the
powerhouse being roughly constant over the year, the reservoir progressively draws down during the dry season
(ie. from October to April), possibly reaching its Minimum Operating Level (MOL 527 masl). At this lowest
level, the reservoir covers only 82 km2. Mean annual rainfall on the plateau is about 2,400 mm/year, 88% of
which falling between May and September.
This reservoir is characterized by the fact that:
- It has a very large drawdown area (up to 370 km2)
It is relatively shallow (11m on average, 38 m max near the Nakai dam))
The reservoir comprises two main parts, separated by a narrowing next to Ban Thalang village. The western part
is quite hilly, was densely forested and was very sparsely inhabited. The eastern part had been heavily logged
over the previous two decades, and had been subjected to slash-and-burn cultivation for generations. More flat
than the western part, it also comprised numerous wetlands (none permanent).

RES 1

Ban Thalang

RES 6

Fig 1 : map of the Nam Theun reservoir at Full Supply Level (538 masl)

In 2008 satellite images (SPOT 5 10 m resolution) taken in January and April were analysed, and the land
cover classified in 9 categories, as shown in the image below :

Fig 2 : Soil cover in the inundation area (D : Dense forest, M : medium, L : light, DG : degraded forest, R : riparian forest, A
: agricultural soil, S : swamps, W : water, O : others) Descloux et al., 2011

These results concur with a previous study carried out by NTPC in 2004, wich gave a less precise mapping of the
vegetation types, but the same broad repartition :

Fig 3 : Soil cover study, 2004 (NTPC)

These mappings clearly showed that most of the aerial biomass was located on the northern and western parts of
the reservoir, ie. close to the Nakai Biodiversity Conservation Area, which is a protected area.

3. Biomass densities type of biomass and expected contributions to WQ degradation

Water quality degradation in the reservoir and associated production and emissions of Green House Gases are
clearly driven by the degradation of biomass present in the inundation area. Indeed, in our case, the biomass
entering the reservoir through the tributaries can be considered as negligible, at least for the first years after
impoundment, compared to the initial stock present in the reservoir bottom.
In 2004, the NTPC studies estimated that 60% of the organic carbon in the inundation area was located in the
soils (figures from NTPC EAMP, 2005):

40%

Aerial biomass : Trees,

bamboos, grass,
leaves, etc
~40 tC/ha in 1997

60%

Soil biomass : roots,

humus, fungus, microorganisms, etc
~70 to 150 tC/ha

Fig 4 : Aerial and below ground carbon in the inundation area, (NTPC, in EAMP, 2005)

These figures were refined by the 2008 study (Descloux et al., 2011). This study, not available at the time of
impoundment preparation (2008), showed that 75% of the aerial biomass had a slow degradation kinetic (ie.
mainly large trees and trunks),
Degradation
Slow
Fast

Carbon density (tC/ha)

High trees (36.6)

Total: 51 tC/ha
Small trees (4.8)
Liana (1.1)
Bamboos (1.5)
Vegetation (2.0)
Dead wood (2.3)
Top soil (2.8)

Organic carbon soil

(with fine roots) (62.3)

Slow: 41 tC/ha
Fast: 10 tC/ha

Total: 64 tC/ha
No data on
degradation rates

Roots (1.2)

Fig 5 : detail of aerial and below ground carbon in the inundation area, (Descloux et al., 2010)

Gurin et al (2008) indicate that on the Petit Saut reservoir, which has been studied since its impoundment in
1995:
- The fate of tree trunks in reservoirs (in term of carbon release) is not documented, and is assumed to be
negligible in comparison to non-ligneous pools
- although plant material is only 5% of the total C considered in the [CO2 and CH4 emissions]
calculations, it was estimated to contribute to up to 10% [of the emissions]; this plant material (leaves)
is reported to have a decay rate one order of magnitude higher than the soil biomass.
The upper part of the soil biomass is estimated by Gurin to be the main pool of organic carbon contributing to
the water quality degradation, based on the Petit Saut experience. Based on field studies and in-lab incubations,
he derived a simple model that gives a representation of the contribution of aerial and soil pools for the emission
of Green House Gases :

Years after impoundment

Fig 6 : Computed evolution over 10 years of CO2 and CH4 benthic fluxes in Petit Saut Resevoir, showing
respective contribution from aerial and soil biomass (Gurin et al., 2008)

The above measurements and studies clearly indicated that a vegetation removal program would not remove the
biomass responsible for the main initial water quality degradation, leading to the emissions of green house gases.
In addition to this approach, consideration was given to the other issues that a large scale vegetation removal
program could generate

4. The approach for the Nam Theun Inundation area

Based on the above considerations and constraints, NTPC, the Government and the International Finance
Institutions agreed that the issue of the reservoir water quality would be best addressed through a combination of
three actions :
proceed with limited vegetation clearance, mainly for social purposes, in the permanently inundated
area of the reservoir (below MOL);
- tentatively remove soil biomass by successive fill and flush phases before operation, releasing the
water downstream of the dam (and not through the powerhouse), in area where natural aeration would
quickly increase the oxygen content;
- improve the water quality in the downstream areas during operation through (i) properly designed water
intakes, withdrawing preferentially water from the upper part of the reservoir, and (ii) using aerating
devices for the released water (cone valve for the riparian release, aerating weir for the turbined waters)
It was decided that the limited vegetation clearance would (i) focus on the permanently inundated area, before
the impoundment, (ii) and would aim at creating navigation corridors between the villages, as well as fishing
areas. A contract was therefore signed with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) to clear 1900 ha of
vegetation in the deepest part of the future reservoir. This activity took place during four months before the
impoundment started.
This program was successfully implemented, despite unexpected rainfall events that delayed the burning of cut
vegetation.
These 19 km2 were coming in addition to the land which was already clear of vegetation, either naturally, or due
to long practiced slash and burn activities:

Fig 7 : Satellite picture showing large patches of land already without vegetation prior to the limited
vegetation clearance program of NTPC
It was measured, through satellite imagery, that 26 km2 of the area below MOL was already non-forested.
By the time impoundment started, on the 80 km2 that would be permanently inundated, and taking into account
the 19 km2 cleared by NTPC, 57% of the area was non-forested, and this figure was up to 82% for the southern
part of the reservoir (south of Ban Thalang)

5. Cutting vegetation : practical considerations and impacts

Impacts caused by the vegetation clearance also contributed to the decision to limit the cutting to socio-economic
purposes, as detailed hereafter.
5.1
Organisation of the vegetation clearance activity
Vegetation clearance requires to
- delineate precisely the area to clear (based on topographic elevation in our case)
- cut vegetation
- dry and then pile it
- burn or otherwise dispose it
- possibly remove remains / ashes
In order to minimize the risk of re-growth, limit erosion of bare soils and permit proper burning of cut
vegetation, this activity should be carried out as quickly as possible, at the end of the last dry season before
impoundment.
A proper delineation is essential to prevent logging in protected areas, or more generally in forested areas that
are not to be impacted by inundation. It was estimated on Nam Theun that a team of 5 could delineate 3 to 5 km
per day. In order to speed up the process, 5 teams were working in parallel.
Cutting of vegetation in the case of Nam Theun was rendered more difficult by the fact that the area was still
littered with Unexploded Ordnances, mainly from the Vietnam war. These UXO require careful identification
and need to be defused one by one before any activity can be carried out in the vicinity.
In addition, some of the vegetation, in particular the bamboo clumps, are particularly difficult to cut.
For practical reasons (shape of the area to clear, riparian vegetation, local slopes, UXO), the use of bulldozers
(for uprooting or for chain and highball technique) for clearance was not considered appropriate. The average
cutting productivity of the teams was 0.15 ha/man.day. Teams were made up of about 15 workers, able to cut 2
to 3 ha/day, depending on the local conditions and vegetation. 15 teams worked in parallel.
Drying required an uninterrupted period of 2 to 3 weeks without rain. This became less and less frequent as the
season was progressing towards the rain period, in April.
Piling was done manually, with the help of tractors and bulldozers for the largest debris.

It was decided to burn the piles on the spot, and leave the ashes. This burning phase requires careful planning,
and proper control measures must be in place to avoid propagation of fire to uncleared areas, fields or settlement,
especially at the end of the dry season.

Fig 8 : Nam Theun : manual vegetation cutting, piling after drying (top);
when piling is not possible burning is done directly on the cut vegetation on the ground (bottom)

5.2
Management of workforce and workers camps
Large clearance program would require having several dozen teams of loggers/cutters working simultaneously
on the future inundation area. They would be accommodated in non-permanent small workers camps, scattered
in the area. The associated issues would have to be carefully addressed, in particular :
- interaction with local communities
- catering / risk of poaching and /or pressure on local resources
- local pollutions (human and non-human wastes)
- impact of technical platforms (refuelling and maintenance of chainsaws and engines if any), risk of
spill, etc...
The management and control of these camps would be rendered all the more difficult that theyre moving,
theyre scattered and theyre established only for a couple of months.
5.3
Monitoring of vegetation clearance
The monitoring of the activity is an important component of the program, for management, reporting and billing
purpose. It has to be made on the spot, using GPS and qualified staff. The subsequent use of satellite images for
a final truthing was rendered difficult in our case due to the fact that there was purposely very little time

between the end of the cutting and the beginning of impoundment, and that corresponded to the beginning of the
rain season, ie. cloudy sky.
5.4
Cost of clearance
There are few available references for the cost of manual clearance, but experience in Laos and western Africa
indicate that the unit rate would be in about 500 to 1000 USD/ha, or 5 to 10 M USD for 100 km2 of forested
land, depending on the local conditions (access, topography, vegetation density, cost of local labour, etc...). For
Nam Theun 2, with a 450 km2 inundation area which was about 2/3 forested, the cost of a total clearance would
have therefore amounted to roughly to 20 to 30 MUSD.
5.5
Impact on operation
As the removal (burning or exportation) of cut vegetation cannot realistically be expected to be perfect, a lot of
floating debris appear when the reservoir is impounded, and start drifting. They pose safety issues for navigation,
and create also a risk for operation of the powerhouse (clogging of the water intake), and operation of the dam
gates (massive arrival of debris during flood event could overpass the logbooms and jeopardize the gates
operation).
On Nam Theun, even if the vegetation clearance was small scale, a floating debris collection program had to be
put in place, with a couple of boats and a barge collecting the debris and drifting them onshore where they were
burnt.
5.6
Impact on fish productivity
The flooded forest is reported to provide important habitat areas for the fish species that develop in the reservoir.
They provide both refuges, spawning areas, as well as source of food from the degrading organic matter.
Areas dedicated to fish production do therefore benefit from the un-cut flooded vegetation.
On the other hand, zones dedicated to fishing should be cleared from trees and bushes, as fish nets can easily get
tangled there, especially in shallow areas. These tangled nets represent a loss of equipment for the fishermen.
More importantly, once tangled in the flooded vegetation, these nets keep trapping and killing fish, generating
ghost fishing, of no use for the fishermen, but negatively impacting the fish populations.

6. Impact of vegetation clearance on water quality and Green House Gases

As discussed above, the impact of vegetation clearance on the future water quality depends largely on the
subsequent fate of the cut vegetation.
6.1 Disposal of cut vegetation
Burning :
This is the most widely used option, as its usually the easier to implement. Issues associated with burning are :
- Risk of uncontrolled fire
- Safety issues
- Large clouds of smoke, creating health hazard to surrounding communities, as well as traffic hazard
on local roads
- Impact on wildlife, with no rescue possible
Removal of the burning residues (which can be estimated to 10% of the fresh standing biomass, or 2 kg/m2),
would represent about 500 000t for the entire reservoir area in the case of Nam Theun, that would need to be
transported over a couple of dozen of kilometres, and properly disposed of. This option was rendered even less
acceptable in our case because of the UXO issue.
Removal of the cut vegetation :
This would have been hardly feasible on a large scale, at it would basically mean removing 5 million tons
vegetation and dumping them in an appropriate place, with subsequent fire hazard and environmental issues
associated. Massive charcoal production could be considered, but would also imply serious environmental
problems.
6.2
Impact on water quality
The rapid mineralization of organic matter through burning provides readily available nutrients for the
phytoplankton once the reservoir is impounded, boosting the primary production of the reservoir in the first few
months. Burning of trees, which would have otherwise taken decades to degrade in the reservoir actually

transforms slowly degradable biomass into nutrients, enabling creation of rapidly degradable biomass (phyto
then zooplankton), which will decompose quickly once it dies, generating in return water quality issues.
The Nam Leuk reservoir is a 13 km2 reservoir located in central Laos, which was impounded in 1999. 78% of
the aerial biomass had been cut and burnt prior to impoundment. However, 1 months after the dam closure the
reservoir was already fully anoxic 3m below the surface. This situation persisted for a couple of years. Anecdotal
reports suggest however that the reservoir recovery was faster than it could have been without the vegetation
Profil O2 dissous - Nam Leuk - 15/02/2000
clearance.
0

O2 (m g/L)
6

10

12

prof. (m)

-5

-10

-15

-20

-25

Fig 9: Dissolved Oxygen profile in the Nam Leuk Reservoir, cleared at 78%, 5 months after impoundment
(15/02/2000)
For the vegetation clearance to have a positive (even though limited) effect on water quality, one should, in
theory, either export the freshly cut biomass out of the reservoir, or remove all the residues left from burning
(ashes and partly burnt debris).
The main positive impact would be brought by the removal of the first 10 cm of soil (and associated biomass),
and all debris on the soil, and exportation out of the inundation area. This is of course not feasible on a large
reservoir.
In term of hydrodynamics, the vegetation clearance does decrease the roughness of the reservoir bottom,
therefore facilitating the circulation of water (and then flushing and/or aeration). This physical aspect could
therefore be positive for the evolution of water quality. Some authors do on the other hand consider that this
smoother bottom could also facilitate the reservoir turn-overs, creating sudden anoxic conditions on the whole
water column, possibly generating fish kills.
6.3
Impact on GHG emissions
The immediate and massive release of carbon through burning generates, instead of letting this carbon trapped in
the submerged vegetation , increase the GHG emissions of the project over it life time. Vegetation cutting and
burning is also counter productive by this point of view, even considering that some of the degradation emits
CH4 during the first years after impoundment.
The degradation rate of ligneous vegetation however still needs to be better studied in order to precise the
contribution of decaying trunks on the long term emissions. It has been shown however that in tropical regions,
dead trees would be completely degraded in a couple of years in aerobic conditions (ie on the ground), while
dead trees take several decades to slowly degrade under water.

7. Other strategies to address water quality issues in the new reservoir

Two strategies are classically implemented to preserve the water quality in the downstream areas (dam and
powerhouse). They rely on the installation of multi-level water intake , to withdraw preferentially water from
the upper layer of the reservoir, and aerating devices, wich increase the dissolved oxygen level in the water,
and release some of the reducing compounds (H2S, CH4) that otherwise contribute to the oxygen depletion in
these waters further downstream. Both were implemented on Nam Theun.

The third approach relies on the flusing of reservoir before beginning of operation:
The Nam Theun Project benefited from 2 years between the beginning of impoundment and the start of
commercial operation. During that time, once the reservoir was full, most of the water was spilled in the Nam
Theun River, where intense natural reaeration occurred, thanks to a 100m drop in elevation over 50 km. This
recovery has since then been confirmed by the permanent water quality monitoring on this stretch, which shows
very high DO levels.
Over 2 full rainy seasons, about three reservoir volumes were therefore flushed into the Nam Theun, safely
removing the decayed organic compounds from the reservoir.
This strategy clearly had a positive impact on the inhabited areas downstream of the powerhouse, as they didnt
receive the waters from the reservoir immediately following impoundment. This improvement is however
difficult to quantify. Preliminary assessment of carbon fluxes exported during this fill and flush period tend to
indicate that they were relatively limited compared to the remaining stock of biomass in the reservoir. This
aspect requires however further studies.

8. Water quality in the reservoir

The graphs below show the evolution over time of (i) the temperature profiles and (ii) the dissolved oxygen
(DO) level for two points of the reservoir : RES1 (next to the dam, on the deepest point of the reservoir, on a
formerly heavily forested zone), and RES6, in the centre of the southern part of the reservoir, in a shallower
area, with initially mostly grasslands and shrubs) (see fig. 1 for location of RES1 and RES6).

Fig 10: Temperature profiles (top, in C) and oxygen profiles (bottom, mgO 2/L) next to the dam (RES 1, left)
and in the southern part of the Nakai reservoir (RES 6, right), from impoundment (04/2008) to 1/1/2011

The thermal stratification of the reservoir is clearly visible, following a seasonal pattern. Evolution of DO is
following the physical stratification of the reservoir. The oxygenated layer in the southern point is not
significantly thicker than next to the dam. This layer seems however to be present for a longer period of time, in
particular at the beginning of the dry season.
Direct comparison of the two points remains however difficult as the evolution of DO depends on the thermal
stratification and biomass degradation, but also depth of reservoir, recirculation and residence times, local winds,
etc...

References
1.
2.
3.

Descloux, S.; Chanudet, V.; Poilv, H., Grgoire, A., Coassesment of biomass and soil organic carbon stocks in a
future reservoir located in Southern Asia, Environmental Monitoring and Assesment, 2010.
Gurin, F.; Abril, G.; de Junet, A., Bonnet, M.P., Anaerobic decomposition of tropical soils and plant material :
Implication for the CO2 and CH4 budget of the Petit Saut Rservoir, Applied Geochemistry, Issue 23, 2008.
NTPC, Environmental Assessment and Management Plan (EAMP), NTPC website : www.namtheun2.com, 2005

Authors
Olivier Salignat is Environmental and Social expert at the EDF Hydro Engineering Center. Hes been involved on the E&S
aspects of the NT2 project since 2003, which included participation to the safeguard documents, E&S section of the
Concession Agreement, discussions with the IFIs and lenders, etc He was from 2006 to 2008 Deputy Director of NTPC
E&S Division, in charge of design, implementation and monitoring of the environmental and social programs. Hes now
involved in E&S aspects of EDF overseas projects.
He has engineer degrees from both Paris National Agronomy Engineering School and Water and Forestry National
Engineering School, and has been working at EDF since 1992 on topics related to environment and hydropower, renewable
energy, and rural electrification in developing countries.
V. Chanudet graduated from the engineering School of Geology of Nancy (France) and received his MSc in hydrogeology
in 2003. He obtained his Ph.D in 2008 from the Swiss University of Geneva after an interdisciplinary doctoral work focusing
on fine particles and water quality of natural lakes. He joined the EDF Hydro Engineering Centre in 2008 and was
responsible for the development of the 3-dimensional modelling (hydrodynamic and water quality including the greenhouse
gases) of the Nam Theun 2 Reservoir. He is now also involved in managing environmental projects including greenhouse gas
emission measurements or assessments in several countries.
Stphane Descloux, graduated from the University of Tours, France, received his master degree in hydrobiology in 1999. He
is currently doing a Ph.D. from the University of Lyon in the laboratory of hydrobiology. He started his career in 1999 as
hydrobiologist in a private company. Since his arrival at EDF in 2001, he has specialized in environmental and socioeconomic impact assessment of hydraulic and hydropower schemes. He is also involved in leading environmental
management projects including greenhouse gases emissions assessment. He is specifically in charge of monitoring and
studies for the tropical zones and is member of the Scientific Comity of Petit-Saut (French Guiana) where numerous
researches are conducted in limnology. He is responsible of the environmental laboratory of the Nam Theun 2 project (Laos)
and of the associated research programme on greenhouse gases emissions. More recently, he was involved in UNESCO/IHA
greenhouse gas research project and in the hydro IPCC/SRREN document.