Development of Small Hydropower in China 1990 to 2015: Province-Domain Patterns of Temporal-Spatial Evolution

Renewable energy is an important part of a country’s energy composition, important to maintaining harmony between human society and nature. At present, the development and utilization of renewable energy has become an important measure for all countries in the world to ensure energy security, strengthen environmental protection, cope with climate change, and realize green development and transformation. With the rapid economic and social development, China`s energy demand continues to grow, and energy resources and environmental problems become increasingly prominent. Accelerating the development and utilization of renewable energy has become the only way for China to cope with the increasingly serious energy and environmental issues and promote green development. Small hydropower in China has experienced 70 years of development. However, no quantitative method has been developed to analyze province-level data of small hydropower development in China. Knowledge of its temporal-spatial patterns can be conducive to predicting and planning for its future. For this reason, the study sets out to approach it as two problems: development level evaluation, and spatial distribution. Specifically, panel data of provinces or equivalent administrative units were used to establish an evaluation system covering the fields of economy, society, eco-environment, and resources; an evaluation model was formulated using the entropy-TOPSIS method and theory of coupling coordination; its trends were discovered by regression analysis; the spatial distribution model was built by clustering analysis and center of gravity analysis. Results indicate: in the 1990-2015 period, while China displayed a general trend of small hydropower gaps closing between provinces, such gaps were widening in the regions of North, Northeast, and Northwest regions, and the center of gravity of small hydropower development appeared to be moving towards the Northwest. Based on clustering of scores in the four dimensions and coupled coordination, its spatial distribution can be divided into three zones: highly coordinated, relatively coordinated, and uncoordinated, and its temporal patterns can be classified into the three stages of rise with fluctuations, unbalanced and uncoordinated development, and steady rise. Policy suggestions are provided on this basis.