Geographies of (small) hydropower development in selected transnational basins of China (Yunnan and Xinjiang). A comparative analysis of the Water-Energy-Environment Nexus.

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Since the new millennium, global production of hydroelectricity has been increasing faster than in all comparable periods before and China has become its world’s largest producer. China’s southwestern province of Yunnan plays here a crucial role; it has become itself one of the world’s largest hydropower (HP) producers. Since 2000, its HP capacity rose from 2.5GW to 59GW in 2016, which is larger than the entire installed HP capacity of South Asia. Yunnan’s current and proposed mega projects on its three major rivers (Mekong, Yangtze, Nu) are well researched. In contrast, almost thousand other dams/HP projects (≥1MW) of Yunnan are almost unknown (in 2016: 22.4GW). This lack of reliable HP data has serious implications for our understanding of Yunnan’s transnational basins, e.g. in terms of HP’s environmental implications, socio-economic and geopolitical consequences.In a previous DFG project I studied the entire HP development in Yunnan’s sections of the transnational Ayeyarwady and Nu basins. While the main stems of these rivers are among Asia’s last undammed rivers, the HP development on tributaries across their basins were significant but almost unknown. I identified more than 370 HP projects. Further, based on the powershed approach, I studied diverse geographies of (small) HP development in the perspective of the water-energy-environment nexus Based on this setting I plan a comparative analysis for all of Yunnan’s five transnational basins, one of the world’s insufficiently scrutinized HP regions. For those basins I plan to examine the diverse trade-offs and interactions between Yunnan’s fast-paced HP development and selected crucial aspects of the nexus. The project will also expand and verify a typology of small HP trajectories and factors that lead to over-development. To pursue this objective I envision three sub-goals: (i) a comparative analysis of HP implementation patterns, incl. to record and geovisualize a complete database of HP development of YN’s transnational basins; (ii) to examine the complex spatio-temporal trade-offs of the water-energy part of the nexus (incl. its diverse generation-consumption-imp/exp paradigms); and (iii) to analyze and quantify aspects of the water-environment part of the nexus. This includes both survey and evaluation of direct cumulative biophysical consequences of cascaded HP development (e.g. fish-samplings, TOC-analysis) and an analysis of SHP’s indirect environmental implications related to energy-intensive industries.In a separate module I want to apply my approach to Xinjiang’s three transnational basins. The northwestern province is China’s fastest growing province in terms of electricity generation, but has a distinguished geographical pattern. I want to understand similarities and differences between Yunnan’s and Xinjiang’s rapid HP development and the nexus interactions. Further, the project aims to improve HP data collection and geovisualization for the entire Greater Tibetan Plateau.