This article briefly introduced China law framework and technical standards related to environmental impacts assessment (EIA) for hydropower development, and the EIA developing process for hydropower development planning. Authors summarized the working experiences about hydropower development planning EIA done in the recent years in China, discussed the considerations and methods of hydropower development planning EIA, and put forward the index system for hydropower development planning EIA initially.

This article briefly introduced China’s law framework and technical standards related to environmental impacts assessment(EIA) for hydropower development, and the EIA developing process for hydropower development planning. Authors summarized the working experiences about hydropower development planning EIA done in the recent years in China, discussed the considerations and methods of hydropower development planning EIA, and put forward the index system for hydropower development planning EIA initially.