BOOK CHAPTER: "Dams, Flows, and Data: Topologies of Power and Volumetric Hydropolitics in the Mekong Basin"

Publication date: May 2025

Publication: Violent Atmospheres: Political Ecologies of Livelihoods and Crises in Southeast Asia

Chapter title: Dams, Flows, and Data: Topologies of Power and Volumetric Hydropolitics in the Mekong Basin

Authors: Carl Grundy-Warr and Carl Middleton

Editors: Wolfram Dressler and Mary Mostafanezhad

See more details on the book here.

In this chapter, we focus on “topologies of power” (Allen 2016) relating to hydrological knowledge and data about river flows, including the “flood pulse”, that is are being profoundly changed by hydropower dam operation in the Mekong Basin. There is growing evidence that flows and volumes are becoming intensified objects-of-concern in transboundary hydropolitics and water diplomacy. Through various international alignments, developmental regimes, and geopolitical relations within the Mekong Basin, there are power topologies at work, whereby metrics such as investment flows, revenue streams and profits, electricity trade and kilowatt hours, and various volumes—especially that of water both flowing and stored behind in reservoirs—take on growing significance relative to geographic issues of distance, proximity, and place. 

We argue that as hydropower expands, it produces new topologies and volumetric hydropolitics that tend to subsume the ecological and social dynamics of the flood pulse. Securing and managing the flows of the flood pulse has become a speculative scientific hydrological arena for “designing flows”, and ongoing engineered mitigation. Our analysis considers volumetric politics as they relate to notions of “securing flows” and how and why hydropower architectures should be understood as political features of power-laden landscapes relating to dominant capital-state-technological assemblages of resource control. We critically reflect on an emerging volumetric logic in the region around hydropower mitigation technologies, hydropeaking, and designed flows and geo-engineered hydrology for managing ecological traits of the river, such as commercial and wild-capture fisheries. Before concluding, we also link our analysis of volumetric geopolitics to narratives of “sustainable hydropower” and climate change.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Grundy-Warr, C. and Middleton, C. (2025) “Dams, Flows, and Data: Topologies of Power and Volumetric Hydropolitics in the Mekong Basin” (pp 141-159) in Dressler, W. and Mostafanezhad, M. (eds.) Violent Atmospheres: Political Ecologies of Livelihoods and Crises in Southeast Asia. University of Hawai’i Press: Honolulu. ISBN-13: 9780824898465

JOURNAL ARTICLE: "The political ecology of large hydropower dams in the Mekong Basin: A comprehensive review"

Publication date: June 2022

Publication: Water Alternatives

Authors: Carl Middleton

Abstract: Since the early 1990s, the Mekong basin has been transformed from a largely free-flowing basin to one that is increasingly impounded by large hydropower dams, impacting river hydrology, ecology, riparian livelihoods, and water governance. This comprehensive review organises and assesses political ecology literature on large dams in the basin. Following a conceptual scoping of the political ecology of large dams, the review covers: the biophysical impacts of hydropower in the Mekong basin and how the scientific studies that research them relate to political ecology literature; relational hydrosocial approaches, including hydrosocial ordering and networked political ecologies; the ontological multiplicity of the Mekong(s) and associated ontological politics; the political economy of large dams in the Mekong basin and its relationship to transboundary water governance and hydropolitics; the discourses and knowledge production about large dams, including those regarding water data politics, 'international best practices', impact assessments, and public participation; and livelihoods, the commons, and water justice. The review details how some large hydropower dams in the Mekong basin have taken on global salience, including the Pak Mun dam, the Nam Theun 2 dam, and the Xayaburi dam. The review argues that political ecology research has significantly widened the scope of how large hydropower dams are understood and acted upon, especially by those challenging their realisation. This includes how large hydropower dams’ political processes and outcomes are shaped by asymmetrical power relations with consequences for social and ecological justice. Recognising that a substantial portion of political ecology research to date has been conducted as extensive plans for large dams were being materialised and contested, the review concludes by outlining future priority research areas that cover existing gaps and posing new questions that are arising as the river basin becomes progressively more impounded.

Keywords: Political ecology of large hydropower dams, hydrosocial ordering, critical hydropolitics, commons, water justice, Mekong-Lancang River

See the article here.

Citation: Middleton, C. (2022). “The political ecology of large hydropower dams in the Mekong Basin: A comprehensive review.” Water Alternatives 15(2): 251-289