Hydropower is found to be one of the most reliable and inexpensive options for renewable energy which was now widely been adopted by many countries to substitute fossil fuel sources. This Brief highlights the impact of climate change on hydropower plants, especially on the turbine design, as turbines are responsible for optimal conversion and regular energy production. The vulnerability of turbines is analyzed with the help of Artificial Neural Networks, followed by Multi Criteria Decision Making methods for development of intelligent indices to represent the level of vulnerability of turbines due to the change in climate.

The increase in GHG gases in the atmosphere due to expansions in industrial and vehicular concentration is attributed to warming of the climate world wide. The resultant change in climatic pattern can induce abnormalities in the hydrological cycle. As a result, the regular functionality of river watersheds will also be affected. This Brief highlights a new methodology to rank the watersheds in terms of its vulnerability to change in climate. This Brief introduces a Vulnerability Index which will be directly proportional to the climatic impacts of the watersheds. Analytical Hierarchy Process and Artificial Neural Networks are used in a cascading manner to develop the model for prediction of the vulnerability index.