Abstract
There is a rapid expansion of energy demand in India. Hydropower as a renewable energy source has the potential to fulfill the demand to quite an extent. Hydropower development has economic, environmental and social impact on society. The sustainability assessment of power projects mostly considers power generation whereas hydropower sustainability depends on social and environmental factors too. In this paper, an attempt is made to evaluate the sustainability of Indian hydropower projects using the weighted sum method and fuzzy logic. The methodology is based on three dimensional criteria i.e. economic, social and environmental considering that all three indicators have an equal impact on sustainability. The paper will be a lighthouse for future planners and researchers in the Indian context as a tool that can be applied for sustainability assessments of planned as well as already constructed hydropower project.
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