The volume of water and area of land that is needed to
substitute alternative food supplies for lost fish catch is quantified.
The indirect impacts of the planned LMB dams are calculated on
SEA forecast losses in fish catch, and quantified using the concepts
of water and land footprints. These approaches can provide
decision makers with a picture of trade-offs in measures (water
requirements and area of land) that are easily understood and
visualised from both a practical and policy perspective. Assessments
methods such as cost benefit analysis (CBA) may often
obscure the values and complexity of impacts by placing monetary
values outside of a more integrated context, thereby distorting the
true representation of costs and benefits (So¨derbaum, 2009).