Hydropower Development Potential Index

This global dataset continuously ranks from >0 (minimal) to 1 (highest) all suitable lands at a 1-km resolution adjacent to rivers for locating a utility-scaled hydropower facility via impoundment (i.e. hydropower dams), diversion, or instream facilities. These data are derived from the weighted summary of six criteria maps: 1) resource yield potential in annual megawatt hours calculated using global river flow and head values, 2) inverse population density, 3) distanced to the electrical grid, 4) distance to major roads, 5) distance to railways or ports, and 6) distance to urban areas. Included with these data are: a) the classified version of the continuous DPI, b) the corresponding classified uncertainty dataset, c) detailed sensitivity tables for all criteria used in the analysis, and d) full description of the constraints and criteria used in the analysis with the Analytic Hierarch Process (AHP) pairwise comparison matrix and resulting criteria weights derived from AHP.