INSIGHTS FROM THE THREE-GORGES STUDY

In the late 1980s, a consortium of Canadian engineering companies carried out a study of the proposed Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River in China. Probe International published a stinging critique of the proposed project and the study. The diverging conclusions from the two groups are explained by the fact that the Canadian engineering consortium and Probe represented two completely different cultures: the large dam, heavy civil engineering culture and the ''new green culture.'' It is claimed that the best hope for avoiding similar conflicts over very large projects in future would be to include representatives from all the professional groups involved - environmental scientists, economists, sociologists, and civil engineers - as full members of the coordinating team for the project right from the beginning.