POSITIVE EFFECTS:

• Provides employment
• Income generated from tourists
• Supplies hydropower
• Irrigation: created new areas of arable land leading to increased production in the agricultural sector
• Increased municipal/industrial water supply
• Income from recreation
• Flood control
• Emergence of new cities and communities
• Helped to mitigate the burden of a growing population
• Navigation of waterways: increased trade and commerce

NEGATIVE EFFECTS:

• Large initial capital outlays
• Costs of maintaining environmental integrity
• Shortsightedness in projected hydropower efficiency
• Maintenance costs
• Residential displacement
• Cost of evaporation of reservoirs
• Emergence of new cities and communities
• Navigation of waterways: increased trade and commerce

AMBIGUOUS EFFECTS:

• Costs of alternative energy sources