Renewable energy becomes a popular topic all over the world. Especially small hydropower schemes produce a sustainable and predictable supply of electrical energy compared to other renewable technologies. The survey on the potential of small hydropower plays a crucial role in the introduction of small hydropower facilities because both feasibility and consensus building with residents need to be considered. However there are few successful examples on the introduction of such system in Japan since the conventional survey is complicated. To solve these problems, we exploited the chance of small hydropower potential survey. The purpose of this study is to perform the survey on the potential of small hydropower with residents and administrators.

In this study, we set Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture as the pilot area. We carried out the new style survey on the potential of small hydropower; topography and water volume survey considering historical aspects and conditions of community activities. This survey was based on the method of “An approach of social experiment” for social problem-solving. We revealed that the proposed survey had significant effects on the installation of small hydropower systems in the local main constituent. The problems of local community and historical recognition related to water management were shared among the residents, which contributed to the smooth introduction of small hydropower facilities depending on the situation.

We introduced small hydropower systems into the pilot area based on the proposed survey, which resulted in the promotion of both forming the local main constituent and partnership among citizen-government-academia.