ABSTRACT
Water resources are the most important natural resources because they are not only renewable natural resources but also abundantly available in Nepal. A favorable topographic condition because of high variation of elevation makes Nepal one of the richest countries in terms of hydro power potential. Despite the vast amount of sources, not all have been used in Nepal. Many small to large scale private-run and Government owned companies operate their hydropower projects throughout Nepal. This study is to assess the run of river hydropower potential of the Karnali Basin by using GIS (Geographical Information System) and Continuous Semi-distributed Hydrological Model (Hydrological Modeling System – HMS). The digital Elevation model (DEM) is used to calculate the elevation data of upstream and downstream ends of the reaches and daily discharges of the reaches are derived from precipitation data using HEC-HMS model with Nash efficiency ranging from 61.7% to 82.02 % and the volume deviation -1.52 % to 17.3 % for calibration and validation period. Using design discharge corresponding to 40th percentile flow with the hydraulic head, total power potential of 14150.80 MW is determined.
