I completed my master’s dissertation in “Integrated land suitability analysis by focusing on socio-economic factors, environmental considerations, and hydropower potential” with the aim of hydropower deployment. My thesis, entitled “Assessment and Investigation of the Gilan Province Potential for Utilization of Mini/Micro Hydropower Plant using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (Case Study: Fomanat Plain, Iran)”, was conducted under the supervision of a proficient hydrology professor, Prof. Ramin Fazloula, and advised by mechanical and civil engineering Prof. Ali Jamali and Dr. Meysam Effati, respectively. It covers various areas such as numerical modeling, data-driven modeling, climate change, multi-objective optimization, SWAT-LARS modeling, multi-criteria decision making, Multi-objective optimization, Hec-Ras modeling, and GIS.

In my thesis, we conducted a two-phase site selection process. In the first phase, we innovated a two-pronged approach to pinpoint optimal locations for hydropower plants in Iran. Leveraging expert insights gleaned from a targeted questionnaire, we established crucial decision-making criteria. Then, by harnessing the power of GIS software and these weighted factors, a comprehensive map of potential sites emerged. To ensure the model’s efficacy, rigorous field survey and river data analysis were employed, ultimately pinpointing the most promising locations for maximizing power generation.
In the next phase, in the spotted locations, using the integration of NSGA-II algorithm and HEC-RAS model the most efficient and cost-effective locations and layouts for hydropower plants were identified. This comprehensive approach ensured we found the most cost-effective and efficient hydropower plant configurations for the study area.

This three-year research has provided me with various experiences in interdisciplinary project problems related to water engineering, geography, and civil and environmental engineering. Our achievement in this duration resulted in scientific papers that have been published and submitted to journals and national conferences. Additionally, I have developed two technical software applications based on our research subjects using MATLAB and Python. The following is a shortlist of the results of our efforts:

1. Providing a GIS-based framework for RoR hydropower site selection: a model based on the sustainable development energy approach. Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems (IF: 2.13- Q2)  https://doi.org/10.1080/10286608.2021.1893310
2. Regional analysis of flow duration curve for ungaged sub-basins (Case Study: Fomanat plain, Gilan, Iran). 3^rd National Conference on Water Resources Management in Coastal Plains, Sari, Mazandaran, Iran. (abstract)
3. Water flow estimating methods in mini/micro hydropower for streams and rivers (Case Study: Fomanat plain, Gilan, Iran). 3^rd National Conference on Water Resources Management in Coastal Plains, Sari, Mazandaran, Iran. (abstract)

Submitted

1. Run-of-River Hydropower Plants Site Spotting Under Long-Term Variations of Climatic Conditions. Journal of Hydro-environment Research (IF:2.45 – Q1).
2. Global sensitivity and uncertainty analysis approach for GIS-MCDM based hydropower site selection: A case study in Fomanat Plain, Gilan, Iran. Journal of Geomatics Science and Technology.

Engineering Software Development

• Technical Application: Channel Optimum Path Finder (Programmed in MATLAB)
• Technical Application: RoR Hydropower Site Spotter (Programmed in PYTHON & JavaScript)

M. Jafari Ashourabadi ¹

R. Fazloula¹

M. Effati²

A. Jamali³

1; Department of Water Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran.

2; Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.

3; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran