U.S. Geological Survey seismologists subsequently found a strong link between the quakes and the refilling of the reservoir. Dam Quake Meanwhile, the inflow increased to 26,500 cubic meters per second from 20,500 cubic meters per second on the previous day. The first of the Yangtze's famed gorges—a collection of steep bluffs at a bend in the river—was determined to be the perfect site. Nevertheless, the current situation is the first major test that the Three Gorges Dam has been put to. The "arriving silt—so long as it does arrive—strengthens the bed on which Shanghai is built... the less the tonnage of arriving sediment the more vulnerable is this biggest of Chinese cities to inundation...", This page was last edited on 2 February 2021, at 01:44. Government officials have long defended the $24-billion project as a major source of renewable power for an energy-hungry nation and as a way to prevent floods downstream. To ward off an outbreak, Davis says, the government would have to prevent the use of night soil as fertilizer, build cement irrigation ditches, and ensure area villagers access to clean water. China's massive Three Gorges Dam to face largest-ever flood 19 Aug, 2020, 08.29 PM IST. Despite the Three Gorges dam's growing list of problems, however, hydropower remains an integral—and ostensibly green—component of China's energy mix. China still draws 82 percent of energy from coal, but large dams are crucial to the country's climate change program, which aims to increase its proportion of electricity from renewable resources from the current 7.2 percent to 15 percent by 2020. The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water-control system, consisting of a 2,309-metre-long and 185-metre-high dam, a five-tier ship lock on the north and south, and 34 turbo-generators with a combined generating capacity of 22.5 million kilowatts. G.W. The decreased flow of fresh water also means that saltwater from the East China Sea now creeps farther upstream. The Three Gorges Project (TGP) is the world's largest water conservation project. The result is a narrow lake 410 miles (660 kilometers) long—60 miles (97 kilometers) longer than Lake Superior—and 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) wide, twice the width of the natural river channel. Chinese Academy of Engineering scholar Li Wangping reports on the CTGPC's Web site that the area registered 822 tremors in the seven months after the September 2006 reservoir-level increase. Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at, China Yangtze Three Gorges Development Corporation, Three Gorges Project Development Corporation. Mao Zedong, the father of China's communist revolution, rhapsodized the dam in a poem. It only reaches about half capacity on average, going by the numbers listed in the Wikipedia article (101.6TWh in 2018 => average ~11,600MW). To make matters worse, China is now plowing ahead with a controversial $62-billion scheme to transfer water from the Yangtze to northern China, which is even more parched, through a network of tunnels and canals to be completed by 2050. Since then, the area has experienced a series of problems, including dozens of landslides along one 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of riverbank. The Chinese Ministry of Water Resources’ Yangtze River Hydrology Committee and China Three Gorges Group noted that to prevent the dam from overflowing, they had lifted more floodgates to drain water at 37,000 cubic meters per second since Tuesday, after the reservoir’s water level increased by more than eight meters in 48 hours to 163.5 meters. A man fishes Wednesday at a reservoir near the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei Province, as the official news agency Xinhua says water levels at … In 1986, Venezuela's Raúl Leoni Dam flooded 1,660 square miles (4,300 square kilometers) of land, creating the vast Lake Guri, along with a scattering of nonsubmerged land. Three Gorges dam project. The authority of the watershed hub management center of the China Three Gorges … In a study published in the Chinese journal Tropical Geography in 2003, scholars at Guangzhou’s South China Normal University predicted that such tinkering with the water level could trigger activity in 283 landslide-prone areas. That biodiversity is threatened as the dam floods some habitats, reduces water flow to others, and alters weather patterns. If water levels behind the Three Gorges Dam start topping it, I certainly would run, not walk as fast I could to higher ground. Over one third of that will come from hydropower—more than from any other source. But he cautions that many of the dam's effects may not be immediately apparent. Political analysts speculate that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are eager to distance themselves from a project they inherited. "Once you dramatically change the climate and change water patterns, as is now seen in the Three Gorges region," he says, "you change a lot of environmental variables. But by 2009, the dam's water level is set to be raised to its full 575-foot capacity and then lowered about 100 feet (30 meters) during flood season. The comments appeared to confirm what geologists, biologists and environmentalists had been warning about for years: building a massive hydropower dam in an area that is heavily populated, home to threatened animal and plant species, and crossed by geologic fault lines is a recipe for disaster. Significant changes in hydrology downstream of the dam have been observed following the operation of the Three Gorges Dam in 2003, featuring lower and more stable water levels [7, 8]. © 2021 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc. Support our award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. In June 2003, nine years after construction began, the state-owned China Yangtze Three Gorges Development Corporation (CTGPC) filled the reservoir with 445 feet (135 meters) of water, the first of three increments in achieving the eventual depth of 575 feet (175 meters). China's Ministry of Health, meanwhile, is trying to control schistosomiasis infections with a combination of drugs and applications of molluscicides, pesticides that wipe out the disease's snail carriers. > three gorges produces 22,500 MW of power. Water first seeps into the loose soil at the base of the area's rocky cliffs, destabilizing the land and making it prone to slides. what the generators are capable of. Most have no choice in this. Three Gorges Dam－the country's largest water control project－has drawn attention at home and from abroad. The reservoir could also break up land bridges into small islands, isolating clusters of animals and plants. According to Fan, changing the water level strains them. Print. At full capacity, the reservoir has a surface water area of … Guangzhou's Southern Weekend late last year reported that villagers in Kaixian County were eager to move again, citing landslides, mudslides and ominous cracks that had appeared in the ground behind their homes. Bao Zhengfeng, a senior official at the Three Gorges Cascade Dispatch and Communication Center, told domestic media Thursday that the water level is expected to peak at 168 meters on Sunday, and added that the current inflow rate is manageable. Summary . This past November, the ground gave out near the entrance to a railway tunnel in Badong County, near a tributary to the Three Gorges reservoir; 4,000 cubic yards (3,050 cubic meters) of earth and rock tumbled onto a highway. August 22, 2020 Updated: August 22, 2020. bigger smaller. The logistical and environmental hurdles involved in executing these dams underscore China's commitment to hydropower. China's New Birth Rule Can't Restore Missing Women and Fix a Population, How Ultrasound Changed the Human Sex Ratio. Many scientists believe this link between temblors and dams—called reservoir-induced seismicity—may have been what happened at California's Oroville Dam, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. 1 World, 10 Billion People: Who Thrives, and Who Falls Behind? According to the Three Gorges Corporation, the water level in the reservoir reached a record high flood season level of 164.18 meters on July 19. The reservoir is designed to hold a maximum water level of 175 meters. The snails used to breed on small flood plain islands where annual flooding prevented a population explosion. In recent years, the water level of Poyang Lake was altered dramatically, in particular showing a significant downward trend after the operation of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in 2003, thus seriously affecting the lake wetland ecosystem. Local news media report that whole villages of people relocated to make room for the dam will have to move a second time because of the landslides and tremors, indicating that officials failed to foresee the full magnitude of the dam's effects. Scientists' early warnings came true just a month later, when around 700 million cubic feet (20 million cubic meters) of rock slid into the Qinggan River, just two miles (three kilometers) from where it flows into the Yangtze, spawning 65-foot (20-meter) waves that claimed the lives of 14 people. (Symptoms include fever, appetite and weight loss, abdominal pain, bloody urine, muscle and joint pain, along with nausea, a persistent cough and diarrhea.) The mega- project could not be realized in his lifetime, however, because the country's resources were exhausted by the economic failures of the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and then the social upheaval of the Cultural Revolution from the mid-1960s a to the early 1970s. For reference, the newly completed Three Gorges dam in China is rated at 20.3 GW, has a nominal head height of 81 m, an implied flow of 28,500 m³/s, and a capacity factor of 0.45. Despite all the trouble, that target was moved up to 2009, Fan says, to boost hydropower output by an additional 2.65 billion kilowatt-hours each year. Almost all infectious diseases are up for grabs.". "For the economic interests and profit of the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation," he says, "that's very important.
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