Chowdhury et al. (2026) Repository of HydroSMADE: Hydropower Site-level Monthly Availability Data Ensemble for 1950-2100 at Existing and Potential Global Sites

Identification

• Journal: DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Repository
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-02-17
• Authors: Abhishek Chowdhury, Guta Wakbulcho Abeshu, Mengqi Zhao, Thomas Wild, Hassan Niazi, Ying Zhang, Gi Joo Kim, Matthew Binsted, Jonathan Lamontagne, Hongyi Li
• DOI: 10.57931/3015845

Research Groups

• Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
• Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL), College Park, MD, USA
• School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

Short Summary

This repository introduces HydroSMADE, an open dataset providing monthly hydropower availability for over 125,000 global sites from 1950 to 2100, generated under 30 future climate scenarios using a global hydrologic model.

Objective

• To provide a comprehensive, open-access dataset (HydroSMADE) of monthly hydropower availability for 1,593 existing and 124,333 potential sites worldwide, spanning 1950-2100, under various CMIP6 climate scenarios.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, covering 1,593 existing and 124,333 potential hydropower sites.
• Temporal Scale: Monthly resolution, spanning the period from 1950 to 2100.

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • Global hydrologic model: Xanthos (with explicit representation of hydropower operation, distinguishing storage and diversion sites, applying optimized operating rules, and incorporating site-specific characteristics).
  • General Circulation Models (GCMs) from CMIP6: GFDL-ESM4, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MPI-ESM1-2-HR, MRI-ESM2-0, EC-Earth3, CanESM5, MIROC6, CNRM-ESM2-1, UKESM1-0-LL, CNRM-CM6-1.
• Data sources:
  • Bias-corrected meteorological inputs.
  • CMIP6 atmospheric forcing pathways: SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5.

Main Results

• The HydroSMADE dataset provides monthly hydropower availability for 1,593 existing and 124,333 potential sites globally.
• The data covers the period from 1950 to 2100.
• It includes 30 alternative future scenarios, derived from the full factorial combination of three CMIP6 Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0, SSP5-8.5) and ten CMIP6 General Circulation Models.
• The dataset incorporates site-specific characteristics such as generation capacity, maximum turbine flow, and reservoir storage, and applies optimized operating rules for both storage and diversion sites.
• The repository contains 122 files, including a readme, a CSV of site attributes, and 120 CSV files detailing site-level monthly hydropower availability.

Contributions

• HydroSMADE is a novel, open-access, and comprehensive dataset offering unprecedented site-level monthly hydropower availability data globally.
• It distinguishes between storage and diversion sites and incorporates optimized operating rules and site-specific characteristics, enhancing realism.
• The dataset covers a wide range of future climate scenarios (30 combinations of SSPs and GCMs), making it valuable for robust climate impact assessments on energy-water-land systems.
• It fills a critical gap in publicly available, high-resolution hydropower availability data for both existing and potential sites, supporting future energy planning and climate change adaptation studies.

Funding

• MSD-LIVE is developed with support from the MultiSector Dynamics program area within the Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling program of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Citation

@article{Chowdhury2026Repository,
  author = {Chowdhury, Abhishek and Abeshu, Guta Wakbulcho and Zhao, Mengqi and Wild, Thomas and Niazi, Hassan and Zhang, Ying and Kim, Gi Joo and Binsted, Matthew and Lamontagne, Jonathan and Li, Hongyi},
  title = {Repository of HydroSMADE: Hydropower Site-level Monthly Availability Data Ensemble for 1950-2100 at Existing and Potential Global Sites},
  journal = {DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Repository},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.57931/3015845},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.57931/3015845}
}