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The South-to-North Water Transfer Project of China: Environmental Implications and Monitoring Strategy
- Source :
- JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 45:1238-1247
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2009.
-
Abstract
- In 2002, China launched the South-to-North Water Transfer Project after completing a 50-year feasibility study. By 2050, the three-route (i.e., East, Middle, and West) project will be capable of transferring 44.8 billion m3/year of water from the water rich Yangtze River to the arid north to alleviate water shortage and help secure a balanced social and economic development across the nation. However, diversion of such a large quantity of water could profoundly change the riverine environment of the upper Yellow River and the lower reach of the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze River and the water supplying area of the project’s Middle Route, because of changes in the annual discharge. Secondary salinization seems inevitable in the water receiving areas of the North China Plain, and decrease in the discharge of the Yangtze River will result in seawater intrusion into the Yangtze Delta. This paper describes the project and discusses its environmental implications. Additionally, a long-term monitoring strategy under the umbrella of the Chinese Ecological Research Network is proposed for environmental monitoring.
- Subjects :
- Hydrology
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Ecology
Water scarcity
Water resources
Environmental monitoring
Interbasin transfer
Tributary
Environmental science
Environmental impact assessment
Saltwater intrusion
Water resource management
China
Earth-Surface Processes
Water Science and Technology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17521688 and 1093474X
- Volume :
- 45
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........2ac765b2630185123db39115f2d44631