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การใช้ระบบภูมิ สารสนเทศและการตั ดสิ นใจแบบหลายหลั กเกณฑ์ 50 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 37 No. 1 Jan.-Mar. 2012 Abstract Utilization of Geographic Information Systems and Multi-Criteria Decision Making to Assess Micro Hydropower Potential in Chi River Basin Prinya Chindaprasirt et al Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University During the last decade, the situation of shortage of world energy is worsened. The exploration and development of renewable energy sources for generating electricity becomes a necessity and urgent. One of the interesting renewable energy sources such as micro hydropower, which requires a small investment and can be easily developed with minimum environmental impact, is considered to be an important alternative energy source for generating electrical power. This study is, therefore, to assess potential area where could be used to develop of a micro hydropower plant in the Chi-river Basin using geographical information systems together with multi-criteria decision making. It was founded that there are 70 potential areas, where could be installed the hydropower generator of more than 5 kilowatts, resulting in the total installation capacity of the generator of 23 megawatts. The potential sites were classified into 4 categories: (1) the reservoir development project of 27 sites; (2) the stream development project of 36 sites; (3) the medium-weir development of 6 sites; and (4) the dam development project of 1 site. These sites were prioritized considering their strengths and weaknesses, in order to develop a pilot project, using multi-criteria decision making with 5 groups of expertise viz., engineering, economy, environment, socio-economy and community participation. As a result of the prioritization process, the Chilong-4 is selected as a community micro hydropower pilot project in the Chi river basin. Key words: micro hydropower potential site, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), geographic information systems (GIS), Chi River Basin