1、1Yangtze River Basin in BriefThe Yangtze River, traversing the West, Middle and East China, is the largest river in the country and the third largest in the world. It occupies the most important strategic position for allocation of water resources to support eco-social sustainable development in Chi
2、na.1. Natural StatusThe mainstrean of the Yangtze River originated from the southwestern side of the snow-Capped Mountain of the Geladandongthe main peak of Tanggula Mountains on the Qinghai and Tibet Plateau, passing through Chinas 11 provinces (or autonomous regions or the municipalities directly
3、under the Central Government), including Qinghai, Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu, and finally enters into the East China Sea in Shanghai, with a total length of more than 6300 km and total fall head of more than 5400 m. Its tributaries extended 8 province
4、s and autonomous regions including Gansu, Sanxi, Henan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang. The Yangtze basin involves a catchment area of 1.8 million km2, accounting for 18.75% of Chinas total.The Yangtze River has its source stream from the Tuotuo River, after converging with the sou
5、th source Dangqu River it is called Tongtian River, and then it is named Jinsha River after merging with the north source Chumar River and joined by Batang River at Yushu, and finally it is named the Yangtze River after joined by Minjiang River at Yibin in Sichuang Province. For the Yangtze River, t
6、he reach between Yibin and Yichang is called Chuanjiang River; the reach between Zhicheng and Chenglingji is called Jingjiang River.With a large water system and numerous tributaries and lakes, the Yangtze River Basin possesses 8 main tributaries with a catchment area of more than 80000 km2, includi
7、ng Yalong River, Minjiang River, Jialing River, Wujiang River, Yuanjiang River, Xiangjiang River, Hanjiang River and Ganjiang River, among them Jialing River is the biggest in terms of area, Minjiang River is the largest in terms of discharge, and Hanjiang River is the longest (Table 1). In addition
8、, there are 4 large fresh water lakes, namely Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Chaohu Lake and Taihu Lake in the Yangtze basin, of which Poyang Lake is the biggest in China (Table 2).Table 1 The main tributaries of the Yangtze River Name of TributaryCatchment Area（10 4 km2）Mean Annual Discharge（m 3/s）Len
9、gth（km）Yalong River 12.8 1914 1535Minjiang River 13.3 2850 735Jialing River 16.0 2120 1120Wujiang River 8.8 1690 1037Xiangjiang River 9.34 2070 8562Yuanjiang River 8.8 2070 1033Hanjiang River 15.9 1640 1577Ganjiang River 8.35 2130 819Table 2 Main Lakes in the Yangtze BasinName of Lake Province Eleva
10、tion(Wusong Datum/m） Area（ km2）Volume（billion m3）Average Depth（ m）Poyang Lake Jiangxi 22 3750 29.57 7.41Dongting Lake Hunan 33.5 2625 16.7 6.37Taihu Lake Jiangsu 3.1 2338 4.43 2.08Chaohu Lake Anhui 10 770 2.07 6.17The section upstream of Yichang is known as the upper reaches with a length of 4500 km
11、 and a catchment area of 1,000,000 km2. From Yichang to Hukou, the river enters into the middle reach with a length of 950 km and a catchment area of 680,000 km2. The section downstream from Hukou to the estuary is the lower reach with a length of 930 km and a catchment area of 120,000 km2. The uppe
12、r Yangtze runs through Alps-Ravines with steep slope and rapid flow except in a small section of the source area, the total water head reaches 5100 m, accounting for 95% of the total of the River. The reach from the mouth of Batang River to Yibin is 2300m long with an average slope of 1.37; the Tige
13、r-leaping Gorge in downstream of Shigu of Jinsha River is a world famous peculiar gorge, with a length of 17 km, a water head of 170 m, a gorge depth of 25003000 m, and a river width of only 30 m in the narrowest part. The reach from Yibin to Chongqing is 370 km long with an average slope of 0.27; t
14、he reach between Chongqing and Yichang is 660 km long with an average slope of 0.18, of which the 192 km reach from Fengjie to Yichang is the famous “Three Gorges“ (Qutang Gorge, Wuxia Gorge and Xiling Gorge). Downstream from Yichang, the river flows into the middle-lower alluvial plain with flat to
15、pography on both banks, and with an average slope of 0.03 between Yichang and Hukou and 0.007 for the reach from Hukou to the estuary, of which the part of about 600 km long downstream from Datong in Anhui province belongs to tide influenced reach. For the terrain of the Yangtze River basin, it is h
16、igh in west and low in east through Chinas three major topographic cascades. The first cascade is composed of the Southern Qinghai Plateau, the Western Sichuan Plateau and the Hengduan mountainous region, with an average elevation of 35005000 m. The second cascade is composed of Qinba mountainous re
17、gion, Sichuan Basin, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the mountainous regions of Hubei and Guizhou provinces, with an average elevation of 5002000m. The third cascade is composed of Huaiyang mountainous region, the hills in the southern area and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, with an average elevation of
18、 less than 500m. The terrain of the Yangtze River Basin is complicated, consisting of 84.7% of mountain and hilly land, 11.3% of plain region, and 4% of water surface. 3Most of the Yangtze River Basin is situated in the middle-latitude subtropical region with monsoon climate and abundant rainfall. T
19、he mean annual precipitation is about 1100 mm, the total volume of water resources is 996 billion m3 accounting for 35.1% of the total in China The basin has a theoretical hydropower potential of 277810MW (2433.6 TWh/year), accounting for about 40% of nations total; a technically feasible potential
20、of 256270 MW (1187.9 TWh/year), and an economically feasible potential of 228320 MW (1049.8 TWh/year), accounting for 48% and 60% of the nations total respectively. 90% of the hydro-energy resources in the Yangtze Basin are concentrated in the upper basin and will mainly be exploited by building lar
21、ge-scale hydropower stations (73% of the total), including 52 large hydropower stations with an installed capacity of more than 1000 MW each, and the largest one -the Three Gorges Hydropower Station reaches 22400 MW (90 TWh/year). There are 3600 navigable channels in the Yangtze basin, mainly distri
22、buted in the middle and lower basin with the inland waterway mileage of 66386 km, accounting for 49.1% of nations total. After completion of the Three Gorges Project (TGP), 10000-ton towboats will be able to pass through right up to Chongqing portThe Yangtze basin is rich in aquatic biodiversity, ac
23、cording to investigation, there are more than 370 fish species, of which one third are endemic species, the output of the main commercial fish “Four family fishes” (Chinese carps) account for 60% of the nations total. The Yangtze is also the home of some rare species, of which Chinese river dolphin
24、( Baiji ) ,Chinese paddlefish, Chinese sturgeon and Yangtze sturgeon are in Class I , while Chinese finless porpoise and Chinese sucker are in Class II on the list of the nation protected species. . In recent years, as a result of increasing human activity, some species are in danger of extinction，t
25、he biodiversity has been showing a declining trend in the basin. The mean annual content of suspended sediment in the Yangtze water is less than 1kg/m3, however, due to the huge runoff, annually more than 486 Mt of sediments are discharged into the sea. In recent years, due to the effect of reservoi
26、r formation and soil and 65% for Guizhou, 3550% for Shanxi, Anhui and Jiangsu; while for the rest provinces, less than 35% of the territory are within the basin scope.There are more than 30 nationalities living in the Yangtze Basin, among them, the Han nationality 5accounts for more than 95%; the re
27、sts are Hui, Miao, Tibetan, Zhuang, Dong, Yi, Tujia and Naxi, etc. mainly inhabiting in the upper Yangtze basin. In 2005, the inhabitants living in the basin reached 429 million, accounting for 32.8% of the Chinas total, with a mean density of 238 persons/ km2, 1.8 times of nations average.The Yangt
28、ze Basin is mild in climate and fertile in land, and also rich in mineral resources, of which the reserve of 30 minerals exceeds 50% of Chinas total; the reserve of Ti V Hg and P account for above 8090%, and Fe, Pb, Zn, Mo, Au and Ag,etc. account for more than 30% of the nations total reserve. The Y
29、angtze Basin is famous in tourism resources with many unique natural landscapes and cultural relics, including the famous Yangtze Three Gorges, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Huangshan Mountain, Lushan Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Emei Mountain, Jiuzhaigou and Zhangjiajie, etc. Since Tang Dynasty, the Yangtze B
30、asin has been the economic center and the birthplace of Chinas modern industry. In recent years, taking Shanghai and Nanjing as the lower Yangtze center, Wuhan as the middle Yangtze center, and Chongqing, and Chengdu as the upper Yangtze center, three major economic zones have been formed in the Yan
31、gtze basin. In 2005, the GDP of the Yangtze Basin reached 5996.7 billion CNY, accounting for 32.8% of nations total. However, presently the economic development in the basin is imbalanced, generally developed in the Delta region and relatively backward in the upper basin.4 Harnessing and Development
32、Since 1950s, great achievements have been made in the development and protection of the Yangtze River. Since 1950s, the Comprehensive Utilization Planning of the Yangtze Basin was compiled by CWRC and approved by the State Council in 1990. 3600 km of embankment along the mainstream (such as Jingjian
33、g Grand Dike) and more than 60,000 km long branch levees in the middle and lower basins have been built and strengthened; the flood diversion and detention areas, such as Jingjiang Flood Detention Area and Dujiatai works, have been constructed, with the flood storage capacity of more than 50 billion
34、 m3. After the 1998 heavy floods, the Chinese government invested a huge amount of money to reinforce the trunk dykes along the Yangtze mainstream. Currently, there are about 48,000 reservoirs of different scales in the basin with a total storage capacity of about 160 billion m3. In addition, the ef
35、fective irrigation has reached 62% of the farmland area in the basin. Up to now, more than 2,440 hydropower stations of various scales have been constructed or under construction in the basin, with a total installed capacity of 69,730 MW and an annual power output of 292.5 TWh, of which 9 stations h
36、ave a installed capacity exceeding 1000 MW. The Three Gorges Project (TGP) has tremendous benefits in flood control, after completion, it will greatly improve the flood control situations in the middle Yangtze in joint operation with dikes, flood diversion and detention areas and reservoirs. The Sou
37、th-to-North Water Diversion Project (East and Middle routes) is a strategic water project to easy the water shortage in north China, which have been started in 2004 and 2005 and the 1st phase of the project will be completed in 2010. In the Yangtze estuary, the projects to comprehensively harness th
38、e estuary and the navigation channel have been underway. Since the beginning of the 21 th century, the protection of ecology and environment of the Yangtze Basin has attracted great 6attention and been taken as one of the primary goals in revising the comprehensive planning of the Yangtze basin TGP
39、is located at the junction of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze, which is the backbone project for harnessing and developing the Yangtze River with great comprehensive benefits for flood control, power generation and navigation, etc. The construction of TGP was started in 1993, in June 200
40、3 the reservoir began to impound water, and it will be completed in 2009. By then, the water level of TGP reservoir will raise to 175m (NPL) with the dam crest elevation of 185m, and the total dam axis of 2309.47m. Upon completion, TGP reservoir will provide the flood control capacity of 221.5108 m3
41、, and it can enhance the flood control capability in Jingjiang section from 10-years flood to 100-years flood. In addition, with the installed capacity of 2240 MW and an annual power output of nearly 90 TWh, TGP can provide huge electricity to Central China, East China and Guangdong to meet the ener
42、gy demand. The formation of TGP reservoir will greatly improve the navigation channel between Chongqing and Yichang and one-way annual shipping capacity will be increased to 50 Mt and 10,000-ton towboats can pass through right up to Chongqing.The construction of South-to-North Water Diversion Projec
43、t, consisting of three diversion routes, namely the east, the middle and the west route, will greatly ease the water shortage in north China.(1) For the east route, the water is diverted from the lower Yangtze, near Yangzhou of Jiangsu Province to Tianjin by raising water head with cascade pumping s
44、tations through the Grand Canal, after passing through Yellow River, the water will be diverted in gravity. The water supply range involves the eastern Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and Jiaodong Peninsula of Shandong Province. The total length of the trunk canal is 1156km with annual diverted water quantity
45、of 14 billion m3 and the 1st-phase of the project will supply 4.6 billion m3 of water to Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. (2) For the middle route, in the near future, the water will be diverted from Danjiangkou Reservoir on the Han River to Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin in gravity. The total len
46、gth of the trunk canal is 1267 km, the mean annual water quantity to be diverted will be 9.5 billion m3 in the 1st phase and 13 billion m3 in the later phase, and in the future, the water will be diverted from the TGP reservoir on the Yangtze River.(3) For the west route, water will be diverted from
47、 the upper Yangtze reach, including the Tongtian River, Yalong River, and Dadu River into the upper stream of the Yellow River to supply water to 6 provinces (autonomous regions) in Northwest China, with the total water quantity of about 17 billion m3, of which 4 billion m3 will be supplied in the 1st phase. 4
