The influence of hydropower schemes on river-related humidity

Concern has been expressed that abstracting water from rivers, whether to generate electricity or for any other purpose, will have an adverse effect on the nearby humidity regime and hence will be deleterious to the ecosystems, especially plants, which have come to depend on that regime. The field data reported are from experiments carried out in north Wales and Scotland, each involving the collection of humidity and other meteorological data from networks of sensors and recorders over periods of several months, to establish the dependence of humidity on relevant atmospheric parameters including rainfall, air temperature and wind climate.