Impacts of River Engineering on Multi-Decadal Water Discharge of the Mega-Changjiang River

Binbin Ma, Wenhong Pang, Yaying Lou, Xuefei Mei, Jie Wang, Jinghua Gu and Zhijun Dai
Additional contact information
Binbin Ma: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Wenhong Pang: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Yaying Lou: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Xuefei Mei: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Jie Wang: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Jinghua Gu: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Zhijun Dai: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: Knowledge of river engineering impacts on water discharge is significant to flow guidelines and sustainable water resource managements for balancing human consumption and the natural environment. In this study, based on the collected multi-decadal discharge data at Yichang, Hankou, and Datong stations, we determined that in October, Three Gorges Dam contributed 34.4%, 24.5%, and 18.7% to the discharge decrease in the upper, middle, and lower reach, respectively, while Gezhouba Dam contributed 14.5%, 10.7%, and 10%. Danjiangkou Reservoir caused the discharge ratio of Hanjiang to Changjiang to decline from 7.2% during 1954–1973 to 6.3% during 1973–2014. Owing to growing water withdrawal and consumption, we suggest that the distribution of water diversion and consumption should be regulated to prevent the probable occurrence of the severe issue of salt water intrusion in the Changjiang Estuary in 2028.

Keywords: river engineering; water discharge; Changjiang river; influence factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8060/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8060/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8060-:d:421755

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().