Hydropower being a renewable and clean energy has an important aspect for the future energy demand in the world. In Turkey, as the urbanization and industrialization increase parallel to the increase in population there will be more and more need for electric energy in future. For the development of a hydropower project some diagnostic and feasibility studies are required. There are technical and environmental objectives that must be satisfied for each project. The size of a hydropower project should be decided according to the local hydrological resources. A well designed installation can satisfy many demands under acceptable financial and environmental conditions besides technical issues.
In this book, a wide ranges of topics are covered. They include the evaluation of water resources with their viability, local conditions for fixing the type of system, theory for engineering works, economic constrains and the elements of a feasibility study, environmental impact and appropriate countermeasures, and the selection of turbines to suit various discharges and heads.
This book has been prepared for civil engineering students who take the hydropower course during undergraduate and graduate education (studies). Many solved examples are provided for better understanding the theoretical parts. There are various problems given at the end of each chapter to be solved by students as homework or to check their knowledge about the theoretical explanation given in the book.