SUMMARY
In this paper, the impact of future climate changes on long-term hydropower generation (LTHG) of cascade hydropower stations in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River is discussed. Global climate models (GCM) were used to estimate the impacts of future climate changes, the Xinanjiang model (XAJ) was applied to project the streamflow of the hydropower stations, and then gravitational search algorithm (GSA) was adopted to solve the LTHG problem. In case studies, the validation of the XAJ model shows that it perform well in the projection of streamflow in the Jinsha River. Moreover, the future hydropower generation is simulated based on five different GCMs under three climate change scenarios. Finally, the GSA algorithm is used to obtain a set of schemes under the influence of climate change. The results show that future climate changes are expected to have different impact on power generation of cascade reservoirs in the downstream of the Jinsha River when the climate change scenarios are different. These findings can provide decision support for future water resources management of the Jinsha River.