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

自新千年以来，全球水力发电产量的增长速度比以往所有可比时期都要快，中国已成为世界上最大的水力发电生产商。中国所在的西南部省份云南省在这里扮演着关键角色；它本身就已经成为世界上最大的水电生产商之一。自2000年以来，其惠普装机容量从2.5GW上升到2016年的59GW，比南亚地区惠普装机容量的总和还要大。对云南三大河流(湄公河、长江、怒江)现有和拟建的大型项目进行了深入研究。相比之下，云南其他近千个大坝/高压项目(≥1兆瓦)几乎不为人知(2016年：22.4GW)。缺乏可靠的惠普数据严重影响了我们对云南跨国盆地的理解，例如，在惠普的环境影响、社会经济和地缘政治后果方面。在之前的DFG项目中，我研究了跨国艾洛瓦迪和怒江盆地云南段的整个惠普开发。虽然这些河流的主干是亚洲最后几条未筑坝的河流之一，但惠普在这些流域的支流上的开发意义重大，但几乎不为人知。我确定了370多个惠普项目。在此基础上，以动力区方法为基础，从水-能源-环境关系的角度研究了(小型)HP开发的不同地理位置，并在此基础上对云南的五个跨国盆地进行了比较分析，这是世界上对HP研究不足的地区之一。对于这些盆地，我计划研究云南快速发展的惠普与选定的关键方面之间的各种权衡和相互作用。该项目还将扩展和验证小型惠普轨迹和导致过度开发的因素的类型学。为了实现这一目标，我设想了三个子目标：(I)比较分析惠普实施模式，包括。记录和地理可视化YN跨国盆地的水文计划开发的完整数据库；(2)研究纽带的水-能源部分的复杂时空权衡(包括。其不同的产生--消费这包括调查和评估HP级联开发的直接累积生物物理后果(例如鱼类采样、TOC分析)，以及分析与能源密集型行业相关的小水电间接环境影响。在另一个模块中，我想将我的方法应用于新疆的三个跨国盆地。就发电量而言，这个西北部省份是中国增长最快的省份，但有着独特的地理格局。我想了解云南和新疆惠普快速发展的异同以及相互之间的联系。此外，该项目旨在改善整个大青藏高原的HP数据收集和地理可视化。

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.