Transboundary hydropower dams are sources of hydroelectricity supply that sit in shared international rivers or watersheds, and/or generate benefits and costs that flow across national borders. Scholars have been exploring the impacts of hydropower dams at a local, regional and national scale for decades, however the transboundary impacts of hydropower ventures have been less studied. Nonetheless, the advent of a new hydropower boom, where a large proportion of untapped hydropower potential lies in transboundary settings, means that there is a need to better understand the specific benefits and costs in those contexts to foster more equitable and just outcomes, and to better examine the dynamics shaping the future of hydroelectricity. To depict the state-of-the-art within this critical field of research, we conduct a systematic review of 1264 peer-reviewed articles published on transboundary hydropower dams from 2009 to 2019. We find that most studies in our sample focus on issues related to water management and water allocation, whereas fewer focus on the scope of hydropower benefits, their temporal and spatial variation, and equity and justice dimensions. Moreover, there is minimal exploration of how differences in relative economic and financial capabilities can impact the distribution of transboundary hydropower benefits. Whether transboundary hydropower dams lead to optimal outcomes is highly dependent on underlying benefit sharing arrangements as well as an explicit acknowledgement and tackling of governance asymmetries. The study concludes that there is an urgent need to systematically assess these conditions to favour just outcomes for all stakeholders.

跨界水电大坝是位于共同的国际河流或集水区的水电供应源，和/或产生了跨越国界的收益和成本。几十年来，学者们一直在探索在地方，区域和国家范围内水电大坝的影响，但是对水电企业的跨界影响的研究较少。但是，新的水电热潮的到来，尚未开发的水电潜力大部分都在跨境环境中，这意味着有必要更好地了解这些情况下的具体利益和成本，以实现更公平和公正的成果，并更好地研究塑造水电未来的动力。为了描述这一关键研究领域中的最新技术，我们对2009年至2019年跨界水电大坝上发表的1264篇同行评审文章进行了系统的回顾。我们发现，我们样本中的大多数研究都集中在与水管理和水分配有关的问题上，而较少关注水电收益的范围，它们的时间和空间变化，以及公平和正义方面。此外，关于相对经济和金融能力差异如何影响跨界水电收益分配的研究很少。跨界水电大坝能否带来最佳结果，在很大程度上取决于基本的利益共享安排以及对治理不对称的明确承认和解决。