The interest in small hydropower plant (SHP) as renewable energy is increasing but also selecting the appropriate small SHP project and its parameters involve different factors because of the multi-dimensionality of sustainable development goals. Number of studies have examined different aspects (environmental, technical, economic …), no prior study has delved into their interactions. To fill these gaps this paper presents the analysis of interrelationship among criteria for sustainable planning project solutions in construction of SHP. The criteria were identified through a review of the literature, as well through the advice of experts in the access areas. Contextual relationships among these criteria have been identified and Interpretative Structural Modelling (ISM) technique and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis has been developed. ISM was used to identify hierarchical structure of all factors while MICMAC analysis has been used to classify criteria based on their dependence and driving power. The main goal of this study is to establish a theoretical and methodological approach for decision makers to investigate influencing factors and major insights into relationship between. The analysis results reveal that criteria Flow pattern and amount of flow, Annual flow and Installed capacity are all key drivers of the desire to realize sustainable SHP project.
