# Hydropower Functional Zoning with Crowdsourced Geospatial Data: A Case Study in Sichuan Province
## 5 Conclusions  
A new framework for hydropower functional zoning with crowdsourced data was proposed in the research. The spatial-clustering approach was introduced to process the point data and evaluate the impact of hydroelectric development in the basins. The hydropower functional zoning was accomplished based on the assessment results of hydroelectric development. We applied the framework of hydropower functional zoning to Sichuan Province, dividing it into 53 level 3 zones, 27 level 2 aquatic eco-functional zones, and 17 level 1 ecological functional zones. Based on the zoning results, hydroelectric development in the future and the eco-environmental problems and protections in the hydropower functional zones were discussed.  
1. Soil erosion in Sichuan Province was mainly distributed in regions with concentrated agricultural activities and mountainous regions with relatively low vegetation coverage. These regions mainly belong to non-affected zones and construction zones, which are negligibly affected by hydropower engineering.
2. Water pollution occurred in the Fu River Basin and the Jialing River Basin, including construction sub-zones in the hilly agricultural Fu River Basin, construction sub-zones in the mountainous agricultural Jialing River Basin, and construction sub-zones in the hilly meadow Jialing River Basin.
3. Hydropower-engineering construction will shift from the Dadu River to the Ya-lung River and from the lower reaches to the middle and upper reaches. In particular, the middle and upper reaches of the trunk of the Ya-lung River will become critical areas for hydropower-engineering projects in the next 10 years.  
The new framework for hydropower functional zoning addresses the issue of difficult hydro-data acquisition and provides eco-functional zoning with a new perspective, which is helpful for the development of various regional hydropower projects and the sustainable management of watersheds. In the future, more work should be dedicated to increasing the scenarios for its application, improving the evaluation of hydroelectric development's rationality, and enriching indicators of hydropower development.  
Conceptualization, H.L. and L.J.; methodology, H.L.; software, H.L.; validation, L.J. and M.L.; formal analysis, Z.M. and X.L.; investigation, L.J.; resources, G.J.; data curation, L.J.; writing--original draft preparation, H.L. and L.J.; writing--review and editing, H.L.; visualization, L.J.; supervision, L.J.; project administration, M.L.; funding acquisition, M.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was supported by Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2020 YFS0032), the Fengyun Application Pioneering Project 2021 (No. FY-APP-2021.0304), the Open Research Project of Think Tank on the Construction of Ecological Barrier Upstream of the Yangtze River and Yellow River in Sichuan Province (No. 202208), and the China Three Gorges Corporation (No. 0704181).  
Not applicable.  
The data presented in this study are available from the corresponding author. Send a request to corresponding author's email, and then you will receive the data.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.