Changes in Water Resources Systems:
Methodologies to Maintain Water Security and Ensure Integrated Management
(Proceedings of Symposium HS3006 at IUGG2007, Perugia, July 2007). IAHS Publ. 315, 2007, 266-275
Impacts
of human activities on the flow regime of the Yangtze River
QIONGFANG LI, ZHENHUA ZOU, ZIQIANG XIA, JIN GUO & Yi Liu
State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
qfli@hhu.edu.cn
Abstract The Yangtze River (Changjiang) is one of the most important rivers in the world, and the alterations in its hydrological regime have global-scale impacts. However, with population increase and economic growth, the flow regime of the Yangtze River has been altered to some extent by human activities, including dam construction, soil and water conservation, etc. The alteration in the flow regime of the Yangtze River will unavoidably influence its morphology and geomorphology, delta evolution and ecosystem health and stability. To assess dam-induced alterations in the flow regime of the Yangtze River quantitatively, this paper selected the Danjiangkou reservoir, the Gezhouba reservoir and the Three Gorges reservoir as case study sites, and the whole study period was divided into 4 sub-periods by the years when these three reservoirs started to store water, respectively. On the basis of the time series of daily flow discharge from six key hydrological stations (i.e. Wanxian, Yichang, Hankou, Datong, Baihe and Xiantao stations), the alterations in annual, seasonal, and monthly runoff in different sub-periods and the driving forces were explored. The output of this paper could provide reference for the assessment of impacts of human activities on the health and stability of the Yangtze River ecosystem.
Key words Danjiangkou reservoir; flow regime; Gezhouba
reservoir; hydrological alteration; Three Gorges reservoir; Yangtze River