Hydropower Sector Research Articles

Drought Assessment in the São Francisco River Basin Using Satellite-Based and Ground-Based Indices

The São Francisco River Basin (SFRB) plays a key role for the agricultural and hydropower sectors in Northeast Brazil (NEB). Historically, in the low part of the SFRB, people have to cope with strong periods of drought. However, there are incipient signs of increasing drought conditions in the upper and middle parts of the SFRB, where its main reservoirs (i.e., Três Marias, Sobradinho, and Luiz Gonzaga) and croplands are located. Therefore, the assessment of the impacts of extreme drought events in the SFRB is of vital importance to develop appropriate drought mitigation strategies. These events are characterized by widespread and persistent dry conditions with long-term impacts on water resources and rain-fed agriculture. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of extreme drought events in terms of occurrence, persistence, spatial extent, severity, and impacts on streamflow and soil moisture over different time windows between 1980 and 2020. The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) at 3- and 12-month time scales derived from ground data were used as benchmark drought indices. The self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) and the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity-based Soil Water Deficit Index (SWDIS) were used to assess the agricultural drought. The Water Storage Deficit Index (WSDI) and the Groundwater Drought Index (GGDI) both derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) were used to assess the hydrological drought. The SWDISa and WSDI showed the best performance in assessing agricultural and hydrological droughts across the whole SFRB. A drying trend at an annual time scale in the middle and south regions of the SFRB was evidenced. An expansion of the area under drought conditions was observed only during the southern hemisphere winter months (i.e., JJA). A marked depletion of groundwater levels concurrent with an increase in soil moisture content was observed during the most severe drought conditions, indicating an intensification of groundwater abstraction for irrigation. These results could be useful to guide social, economic, and water resource policy decision-making processes.

A Near Real-Time Hydrological Information System for the Upper Danube Basin

The multi-national catchment of the Upper Danube covers an area of more than 100,000 km2 and is of great ecological and economic value. Its hydrological states (e.g., runoff conditions, snow cover states or groundwater levels) affect fresh-water supply, agriculture, hydropower, transport and many other sectors. The timely knowledge of the current status is therefore of importance to decision makers from administration or practice but also the interested public. Therefore, a web-based, near real-time hydrological information system was conceptualized and developed for the Upper Danube upstream of Vienna (Upper Danube HIS), utilizing ERA5 reanalysis data (ERA5) and hydrological simulations provided by the semi-distributed hydrological model COSERO. The ERA5 reanalysis data led to comparatively high simulation performance for a total of 65 subbasins with a median NSE and KGE of 0.69 and 0.81 in the parameter calibration and 0.63 and 0.75 in the validation period. The Upper Danube HIS was implemented within the R programming environment as a web application based on the Shiny framework. This enables an intuitive, interactive access to the system. It offers various capabilities for a hydrometeorological analysis of the 65 subbasins of the Upper Danube basin, inter alia, a method for the identification of hydrometeorological droughts. This proof of concept and system underlines how valuable information can be obtained from freely accessible data and by the means of open source software and is made available to the hydrological community, water managers and the public.

Towards Good E-Flows Practices in the Small-Scale Hydropower Sector in Uganda

Stakeholders of the small-scale (<50 MW generation capacity) hydropower sector in Uganda recognise the importance of sustainable development of the resources that have social and ecological importance. Uganda is experiencing a boom in hydropower projects resulting in over generation of electricity and its exportation to neighbouring nations. Limited policies are currently available in Uganda to direct the sustainable development of this sector. Environmental flows (e-flows) practices established for the Nile Basin region and international good e-flows practices can contribute to sustainable management of hydropower developments in Uganda. The paper defines and explains e-flows, identifies water resource attributes of importance for e-flows determination associated with hydropower and threat associated with this activity in Uganda, and provides good e-flows determination and management practices based on regional and international information. The determination and management of e-flows in the hydropower sector in Uganda is largely dependent on the availability of and quality of hydrology, hydraulic and flow-ecosystem and flow-ecosystem service relationship information. This review of good-practice e-flows practice for the small hydropower sector in Uganda provides guidance to support multiple stakeholders of water resources in Uganda for a better future for all of its vulnerable communities and the environments they depend on.

The future of hydropower development in Nepal: Views from the private sector

Private sector actors are taking on an increasingly prominent role in energy transitions, including in hydropower development and finance. Yet, there is little empirical research on the topic. This study covers private sector views on accelerating hydropower investment in Nepal, using Q methodology. Three main viewpoints were identified among 17 interviewed hydropower developers, planners, and investors based in Nepal: 1) Efforts need to be focused on reforming hydropower policies and administration at the national level; 2) Funds for hydropower development need to be increased and sought from a diversity of domestic and foreign private sources; 3) Nepal needs to integrate its energy grid with its South Asian neighbours, starting with India. Areas of strong disagreement include the role of political stability in enabling hydropower development, as well as modes of engagement with Indian, Chinese, and Western partners. Areas of consensus include the need to smoothen land acquisition procedures as well as discomfort with the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority's perceived monopolistic status in the sector. Overall, this study contributes to debates on private sector involvement in hydropower development with a nuanced empirical assessment of views which contain clear visions for an independent and domestically driven future of the country's hydropower sector.

Nexus between Capital Structure and Financial Performance of Nepalese Hydropower Companies

This study aims to shed light on the empirical investigation of the nexus between capital structure and financial performance. This paper focuses on hydropower companies listed on Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) until mid-July 2020. This paper analyzes the nexus of capital structure with the financial performance of hydropower companies for the period 2005/06 to 2019/20. This study applies a descriptive and causal research design. Return on equity (ROE) is used to measure financial performance and is considered a dependent variable and short-term debt to capital (SDC), long-term debt to capital (LDC), total debt to capital (TDC), and debt to assets (DR) ratios are the measures of capital structure and used as explanatory variables. This paper reveals that short-term debt to capital ratio has a positive role in financial performance. Moreover, the findings of this paper depict that long-term debt to capital and total debt to capital has a significant positive impact on the financial performance of hydropower companies in Nepal. However, the debt to asset ratio inversely affects financial performance. Thus, this paper concludes that Nepalese hydropower companies should increase short-term, long-term, and total debt to capital ratios and decrease debt to assets to maximize financial performance. The implication of this study is in the formulation of optimal capital structure policy. The hydropower sector can apply the findings of this paper to formulate an appropriate capital structure policy to maximize its financial performance in Nepal.

Greening small hydropower: A brief review

Hydropower is considered as a clean energy. However, compared to other renewable sources (like wind and solar), its adverse impacts on society and nature are substantial, and it exists during the construction and operational phase as well. Therefore, there is a need to green the overall hydropower sector minimizing its impact. This paper focuses on greening the small hydropower. It reviews the concept of green hydropower, its history, needs, various frameworks, and categories that are dominant or have shaped the field. Specifically, we have considered concepts from pioneer countries and institutes like the USA (LIHI), Switzerland (EAWAG), U.K. (IHA), and some Nordic countries. With this background, this study has reviewed the Chinese history, their updated progress in greening the system, measurement methods, and key criteria with some leading examples and present a detailed green certification case study. Finally, this paper recommends further improvements that can be made in the field.

Relative Importance of Risks in Hydropower Projects and Project Finance in Nepal

Hydropower is the sole internal source of electricity in Nepal. Since the government policy of private participation in hydropower sector launched, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have gained significant presence under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model of infrastructure development. Risk management is crucial in PPP projects as mishandling of any risk threatens sustainability and may result in project failure. This study analyses four major risks including Hydropower Sector Specific Risks, Project Finance Specific Risks, Hydropower Project Financing Risks and Country Specific Political and Legal Risks. Self-administrative survey utilizing questionnaire was conducted among the IPPs and domestic Banking and Financial Institutions (BFIs). Relative Importance Indices have been used to determine the importance of each risk item. Exchange rate changes, currency mismatch between local revenue and foreign loan, cost and time overrun, inflation, political turmoil and highly volatile political environment are few of the most critical risks found. For Project Finance proper allocation of risks among the stakeholders is crucial to make the projects bankable. Findings from this study indicate no risk should be neglected and relative importance of risks is critical in allocating risks among stakeholders. This study highlights assessment and the use of RII in the process of allocation and management of risks in infrastructure projects in general and hydropower in particular.

The role of traditional rituals in resisting energy injustice: The case of hydropower developments in Svaneti, Georgia

This study intervenes in the energy justice literature by bringing to the foreground the local, emplaced, and bottom-up perspective. We specifically explore the potential of place-based agency, expressed in the form of traditional rituals, to expand the repertoire of extra-institutional means of resistance against various manifestations of energy injustice. We investigate the recent developments in the hydropower sector in the Svaneti region of the Republic of Georgia. Based on a qualitative research design involving personal interviews and document analysis, we explain how and why the traditional ritual of taking the oath of unity on the icon of St. George has been used to oppose hydropower developments, and how the employment of this extra-institutional action is linked to the changed political opportunity structure. In addition to underscoring the need to recognize and respect the cultural and religious importance assigned to traditional rituals by local communities, the findings of our study imply a need to consider traditional rituals not merely as symbolic or/and performative means of resistance, but also as political tools that may have a significant impact on the development of energy projects.

Hydropower potential in Assam: Assessment and analysis

Electricity is a must in every aspect of life. It has been identified as a fundamental human desire. It is the foundation of a country’s socio-economic growth. The provision of low-cost electricity to rural India is critical to the country’s overall growth. The service sector has made a significant contribution to our economy’s development. The availability of a high-quality electricity supply is critical to the sector’s long-term development. Energy consumption is rapidly increasing, as are greenhouse gas emissions from the energy industry. In terms of socio-economic indicators, Assam lags behind the rest of India. The vast hydroelectric potential of the area is due to the abundance of seasonal rivers and water bodies. However, it has been observed that hydropower development is hampered by a number of factors, including technical difficulties, political problems, a lack of adequately investigated projects, environmental concerns, power evacuation issues and many more. Exploitation of the huge hydro potential in Assam could be used for export to the power deficit regions of the country. Construction of infrastructure in remote hilly areas, communications, and energy supply, will benefit the country as a whole, resulting in a higher standard of living. The study’s aim is to determine the current power situation in Assam in terms of hydropower and also highlighting the region’s hydropower sector’s potential opportunities and challenges.

Increased water risks to global hydropower in 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C Warmer Worlds

Hydropower plays an important role within the renewable energy sector and supports the achievement of international energy security targets. Yet this sector is also vulnerable to droughts which affect generation potential, and high flows which can cause structural and operational damage. Here we use river flows calculated using a multi-model ensemble to investigate the potential water risks which current and planned global hydropower generation capacities may face at 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C warmer worlds. We find that the global hydropower sector will have to face diverse, simultaneous, and compound water risks. We estimate that about 65% of current global hydropower installed capacity will be exposed to risk from recurrent high river flows (here understood as the change in the 1-in-100-years flow). Up to 75% of existing hydropower capacity in Europe, North America and MENA is located in areas where droughts are projected to become at least 10% longer when compared to historical conditions. Achieving a 1.5 °C warming target would reduce these risks, compared to a 2.0 °C scenario.

Naturalized streamflows and Affluent Natural Energy projections for the Brazilian hydropower sector for the SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios of the CMIP6

Abstract Climate change projects an increase in extreme weather events in the coming decades, which could significantly affect Brazil's water and energy security. Thus, this study sought to analyze possible impacts of climate change on the projections of naturalized streamflows and Affluent Natural Energy (ANE) for the Brazilian hydropower sector utilizing five models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects version 6 (CMIP6), based on SSP-4.5 and SSP-8.5 scenarios for the 21st century. Naturalized streamflows for the 24 stations representing the National Interconnected System (NIS) were estimated through the concentrated hydrological model SMAP (Soil Moisture Accounting Procedure), while the streamflows for the other stations that comprise the NIS were obtained by linear regression. The streamflows, as well as the productivity of the reservoirs, were used to calculate the ANE. The results showed that most of the models project possible reductions in annual naturalized streamflows and ANE for the three periods analyzed and for the North, Northeast, and Southeast/Midwest sectors of Brazil. Meanwhile, the Northern and Southern sectors, for the period 2080–2099, most of the models indicated an increase of annual, precipitation, naturalized streamflows and ANE.

A Comprehensive Study on the Recent Progress and Trends in Development of Small Hydropower Projects

In terms of fuel resource, hydropower possesses a prominent advantage over any other large power plants which burn fossil fuels to generate electricity. Moreover, due to the abundance in resource availability (as a domestic source in small streams and rivers), small hydropower (SHP) plants are showing prominence all over the world. SHP plants have led to improved access to electricity usage in under-developed and developing nations, thereby contributing to sustainable development goals and social empowerment. SHP, as a technology, is regarded as the largest density renewable resource with high adaptability, and low investment costs. The primary objective of the paper is to study and analyze recent developments in SHP technologies with reporting statistical figures in terms of installed capacity and MW potential in several parts of the world. Methodologies adopted by researchers to conduct techno-economic analysis of SHP projects are reviewed. Various costs involved in conducting pre-feasibility studies—such as constructing, maintaining, and sustainably operating SHP projects—are studied. The results of the study indicate cost and regulatory issues are the major factors affecting the growth of the small hydropower sector in many nations. Major impediments to construction, development and deployment of SHP projects, mutually existing among the nations worldwide, are also reported. Technical hindrances include non-availability of the grid and very limited accessibility to SHP sites, emissions due to storage of water, disruptive technologies with limited manpower and non-technical hindrances include discouragement from local bodies and groups, lack of suitable and precise pathways to accomplish SHP goals of a nation, lack of incentives for encouraging private players to invest in SHP projects, complex approval processes, and many more.

Do global competitiveness factors effects the industry sustainability practices? Evidence from European hydropower industry

The aim of the research to investigate the effect of global competitiveness determinants on the sustainability of hydropower production in the European Union (EU 28) states from 1990 to 2018. Using the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), the findings shows that the hydropower sector develops with an improvement in the international competitiveness factors. Whereases human capital, innovation ecosystem, markets, enabling environment, and economic growth observed to be inflating the sustainability of hydropower production. The result suggests that the sustainability of the hydropower production in EU15 developed nations could be efficiently strengthened thru enhancing the value of human capital, innovation ecosystem, and enabling environment. Also, the result suggests that the sustainability of the hydropower production in EU13 underdeveloped nations could efficiently improve thru increasing the value of the markets. In time, this will promote global warming and environmental pollution discussions. The projected calculations are observed to be valid as confirmed thru the Panel Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) and Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (Pooled OLS) methods. This research suggests that for EU28 nations have to intensify the effectiveness of global competitiveness pointers in achieving the goals in both the society and environment. Lawmakers should also participate more in global competitiveness aspects to improve the sustainability and security of hydropower production. The policymakers of these nations could similarly stress cointegrated sustainable strategies for global competitiveness decomposition in achieving hydropower sustainability and reducing the need for fossil fuel and carbon dioxide emissions in the future.

Numerical investigation on the volute cutwater for pumps running in turbine mode

The hydropower sector has recently raised the interest in pump as turbine (PaT) that can be a valid trade-off between capital cost and performance in micro-scale installations. Nevertheless, the modest efficiency of PaTs often restricts their exploitation. In this paper, available experimental data are used to tune a numerical model which aims to investigate the effect of the pump cutwater design on the PaT performance to improve the hydraulic efficiency. Because of its finite thickness, the cutwater interferes with the flow at the runner inlet, and generates local flaws in the velocity field such as swirl and deviations of the streamlines which limit the machine performance. To identify the geometrical characteristics of the cutwater impacting on the PaT performances, different values of stretching and thickness of the cutwater are studied at variable inclination by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A multivariate regression method is applied on the CFD results to build a surrogate model of the PaT hydraulic characteristics as a function of the geometrical parameters of the machine cutwater. Based on this model, an optimization problem is solved to identify the most advantageous geometrical asset of the PaT cutwater to maximize the efficiency. The results highlight that the length and the cutwater angle are the most affecting variables in favouring a tangential component at the entrance of the runner. The hydraulic efficiency peak of the optimized geometry results to be 86.3%, while the baseline configuration records an efficiency of 82.4%, and the Ψ−ϕ characteristic moves the best efficiency point towards higher head (+7.5%) and lower discharge (−13.0%). The proposed methodology allows identifying the best geometrical characteristics of the PaT cutwater to maximize the performances while significantly reducing the computational time.

Fine-scale multiannual survey of benthic invertebrates in a glacier-fed stream used for hydropower generation

The present dataset contains information about aquatic macroinvertebrates and environmental variables collected before and after the implementation of a small “run-of-river” hydropower plant on the Saldur stream, a glacier-fed stream located in the Italian Central-Eastern Alps. Between 2015 and 2019, with two sampling events per year, we collected and identified 34,836 organisms in 6 sampling sites located within a 6 km stretch of the stream. Given the current boom of the hydropower sector worldwide, and the growing contribution of small hydropower plants to energy production, data here included may represent an important – and long advocated – baseline to assess the effects that these kinds of powerplants have on the riverine ecosystem. Moreover, since the Saldur stream is part of the International Long Term Ecological Research network, this dataset also constitutes part of the data gathered within this research programme. All samples are preserved at Eurac Research facilities.

Risk Rating for Risk-Based Maintenance: A Case Study of Small Hydropower Plant in Nepal

Fourth generation maintenance philosophy and Quality management system 9001:2015, emphasis on the concept of risk based thinking. And it is one of the challenging part of maintenance department to adopt these philosophy by quantifying all the activities of the department. Risk rating based on reliability is one of the techniques to quantify the maintenance activities for those organizations, whose reliability of goods and services matter in the market. Hydropower sector is also among them whose reliability matters highly in consumer life standard. So this paper approaches to rate the risk of hydropower based on the reliability of components for the implementation of Risk-based maintenance. From the study of data recorded in log book of a small hydropower plant located in western part of Nepal, it was found that the overall reliability score of the plant was 0.9819, which was low as compared to other hydropower of Nepal, where turbine section of both the units of the plant found a higher risk score than other systems. Study adopted two tools i.e. Analytical Hierarchical based Fault Tree Analysis and Critical Analysis Technique to find the critical assets and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis for the rest of all to quantifying the risk in component level. The analysis shows that the cooling system as the critical asset for both the units and it contributes 72% and 64% in the reliability of the turbine section. The critical assets thus obtained was validated through the critical analysis technique. From which the risk score of cooling system found 90% in both the units. To analyze the risk in component level, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis of different sub component of critical assets was done. Among the sub-components of the cooling system, radial tube filter gets the highest risk score. Its components; cartridge, tube, and joints have the risk score of 450, 192, and 96 respectively. And from the critical analysis of the rest of the subsystems of uint-I and unit-II, components such as bearings, breaker of the transmission system, transmission equipment, excitation system and transformer of unit-I and breaker of the transmission system, transmission equipment and excitation system of unit-II are found to have higher critical score, hence, it is recommended to apply preventive activities on these components as per the manufacturer to reduce the risk that could be caused by their failure.

Reforming Benefit-Sharing Mechanisms for Displaced Populations: Evidence from the Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project, Pakistan

Abstract The concept of benefit-sharing has popular focus in numerous discussions concerning approaches with displacement, development, and sustainable livelihood. It is clear that compensation is inadequate to mitigate impoverishment risks and re-build improved sustainable livelihoods. Benefit-sharing is seen to be a vital option for the improvement and development of re-settler’s livelihoods. Subsequently, this study aims to provide evidence of the present state of policy, benefit-sharing mechanism practices, and approaches in the hydropower sector of Pakistan. The benefit-sharing mechanism is present in some form but it needs new endoresements and reforms within the national resettlement framework of Pakistan. The target case in this study is to investigate the implementation level of benefit-sharing mechanisms in the Ghazi Barotha Hydropower project. It shows an example of some necessary elements of benefit-sharing and has provided a possible solution for solving the dilemma of compensation-based resettlement in Pakistan.

Impact of the quality of hydrological forecasts on the management and revenue of hydroelectric reservoirs – a conceptual approach

Abstract. The improvement of a forecasting system and the continuous evaluation of its quality are recurrent steps in operational practice. However, the systematic evaluation of forecast value or usefulness for better decision-making is less frequent, even if it is also essential to guide strategic planning and investments. In the hydropower sector, several operational systems use medium-range hydrometeorological forecasts (up to 7–10 d ahead) and energy price predictions as input to models that optimize hydropower production. The operation of hydropower systems, including the management of water stored in reservoirs, is thus partially impacted by weather and hydrological conditions. Forecast value can be quantified by the economic gains obtained with the optimization of operations informed by the forecasts. In order to assess how much improving the quality of hydrometeorological forecasts will improve their economic value, it is essential to understand how the system and its optimization model are sensitive to sequences of input forecasts of different quality. This paper investigates the impact of 7 d streamflow forecasts of different quality on the management of hydroelectric reservoirs and the economic gains generated from a linear programming optimization model. The study is based on a conceptual approach. Flows from 10 catchments in France are synthetically generated over a 4-year period to obtain forecasts of different quality in terms of accuracy and reliability. These forecasts define the inflows to 10 hydroelectric reservoirs, which are conceptually parameterized. Relationships between forecast quality and economic value (hydropower revenue) show that forecasts with a recurrent positive bias (overestimation) and low accuracy generate the highest economic losses when compared to the reference management system where forecasts are equal to observed inflows. The smallest losses are observed for forecast systems with underdispersion reliability bias, while forecast systems with negative bias (underestimation) show intermediate losses. Overall, the losses (which amount to millions of Euros) represent approximately 1 % to 3 % of the revenue over the study period. Besides revenue, the quality of the forecasts also impacts spillage, stock evolution, production hours and production rates, with systematic over- and underestimations being able to generate some extreme reservoir management situations.

China’s leadership in the hydropower sector: identifying green windows of opportunity for technological catch-up

Abstract From the sectoral systems of innovation perspective, the windows of opportunity (hereafter referred to as WoOs) for industrial latecomers to catch-up could be opened up through abrupt changes in the technological, market, and institutional dimensions. Existing literature discusses different dimensional changes in isolation. Nevertheless, for green industries, the systemic interplay of these dimensions is of key importance; yet few studies have probed into this. These limitations in the literature are largely rooted in the lack of novel methods to detect and specify these abrupt changes, especially in a quantitative way. This paper, therefore, proposes a framework combining natural language processing methods with experts’ knowledge to detect these abrupt changes—named turbulences—by using multi-source heterogeneous data, in order to better identify the co-occurrences and interactions of turbulences across the technological, market, and institutional dimensions that have a high probability to open up WoOs. We apply this framework to analyze China’s hydropower sector as a case study. The hydropower sector is considered a “green” energy sector, in which China, as this study finds, has recently gained technological leadership. By analyzing the interactions between these multiple dimensions of WoOs, we discover that institutional turbulences proactively intertwine with other turbulences, and collectively form Green WoOs for the successful catch-up of China’s hydropower sector.

Selection of best location for small hydropower plant (SHP) along Chamkhar River, bhutanusing analytical hierarchy process (AHP)

Hydropower development activities have been playing an indispensable role in enhancing Bhutan's economy and driving towards its goal of becoming a self-reliant nation. Hydropower being a renewable source of energy with minimal environmental impacts has always synchronized with Bhutan's strict environmental regulations and policies. Despite having remarkable hydropower potential, it has been able to harness only a fraction of the total potential hydropower production only due to various challenges faced by the hydropower sector. There is a lack of in-house resources and experienced local expertise to carry out the specific assessment. Large-scale hydropower projects not only have high upfront cost and risk but also posing severe threats to the environment of terrestrial and riverine ecosystems. Run-off-river small hydropower plants (SHP) are considered to be most cost-effective and more importantly, they have relatively lesser impacts on the environment. It has been understood that river systems in Bhutan have numerous potential sites for SHPs despite facing a challenge in the selection of a suitable location. Hydropower development is a multi-dimensional approach that pivots on various factors and requires a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). This study focuses on criteria prioritization of seven different criteria of locating an SHP along Chamkharriver that has been notable of its potentiality. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) of MCDA is the most suitable method for selecting the most feasible locations of a hydropower plant in this study. From the total of ten potential sites that have been considered feasible through technical studies, eventually, seven were taken for further suitable analysis. Hence, the five quantitative and two qualitative criteria were used to scale down to the most suitable location using the AHP method. This paper's model resulted that among the criteria, the sanctuary buffer distance (environmental aspect) to be a top priority criterion, followed by heritage (social aspect) and the next was the project cost (economic aspect).