China: A hydrological history

Janku, Andrea

doi:10.1038/536028a

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Another viewpoint argues that natural variation in the environment is more signi cant than the dam effects 17 . Here, the scienti c stance is that TDG provides many bene ts for environmental improvement such as ood control 18 , facilitation of sediment deposition that leads to cleaner water in the reservoir 7 .…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Three Gorges Dam accelerates acidification of upland soils

Sun

Wang

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Large hydroelectric dams have provided extensive benefits in supporting human socio-economic development but their environmental footprint has come under increasing scrutiny. Lack of continued long-term monitoring of the environment remains a key constraint to the understanding of the correlation between dam operation and the environmental changes. Here we assess the impact of the Three Gorges Dam on upland soils in the reservoir area. By tracking the changing of pH value, a general indicator of soil health, over a period spanning nearly three decades before and after the dam construction, we observe continuous pH decline evidencing ongoing soil acidification. In addition to the intensive proton supply from applied fertilizers, the presence of the megaproject is believed to be a major driver of the accelerated soil acidification. Further analysis reveals that the shifts of microclimatic conditions as a result of the dam leads to the enhanced decomposition of organic species and the concomitant loss of exchangeable base cations, which contribute additional protons to soil and reduce soil acid-buffering capacity, respectively. Our findings identify the ecological impacts of the world’s largest dam and suggest the urgency to initiate environmental protection measures for improved sustainability.

show abstract

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Three Gorges Dam accelerates acidification of upland soils

Sun

Wang

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent papers have chronicled the development of hydrology in Africa (Hughes et al, 2015) and the UK (McCulloch, 2022) and built upon extensive early reviews of hydrology by Biswas (1970). The link between water and Chinese history is widely known, as noted by Ball (2017) where ‘an intimate connection between hydraulic engineering, governance, moral rectitude and metaphysical speculation that has no parallel anywhere in the world.’ As a result, China's development is inextricably linked to its hydrology (Janku, 2016). However, the English mainstream hydrological literature has not summarized the history of experimental hydrology studies in China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A historical overview of experimental hydrology in China

Nan,

Chen,

Zhao

et al. 2024

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The history of experimental hydrology in China is important but poorly documented. Here we review 94 papers (86 of these in Chinese) from the CNKI and Web of Science websites to chronicle the history of experimental studies in China before 2000. Professor Wei‐Zu Gu—the focus of this Special Issue—factors heavily into this history. Perhaps more than any country, the experimental hydrology history of China is influenced by socioeconomic development and political change. Our analysis shows 4 main periods of development associated with (1) an early development stage before 1949, the founding year of People's Republic of China (PRC), (2) an initial period of rapid transition in experimental studies in China (1949–1965), (3) a struggling and recovering stage for during and shortly after the Cultural Revolution, from 1965 to 1978, and (4) significant progress associated with new policies for reform and opening up in China from 1978 to 2000, that included contributions of Wei‐Zu Gu and other scientists. In terms of experimental hydrological findings, two notable contributions are a mathematical description of saturation overland flow derived from streamflow and precipitation data and calculated water storage deficit in the unsaturated zone by Zhao and Zhuang (1963), several years before its process‐based ‘discovery’ in the USA (and elsewhere) and the ‘interface runoff generation law’ of Yu (1985) which was ahead of its time in understanding linking the notion of the commonality of all runoff forms. In terms of model development stemming from experimental studies, the development of the Xinanjiang Model of Zhao (1980) was a significant achievement, later partly adopted into the VIC model in the USA and the ARNO model in Europe. Finally, the Hydrohill catchment developed by Wei‐Zu Gu led the way for the rapid rise in process studies and internationalization of experimental hydrology in China. Overall, the experimental hydrological studies from 1949 to 2000 had a strong engineering focus, with many links to water conservation construction and management.

show abstract

“…e demand for usable water is always high in any community; therefore, this has made many conflicts in the history. Whether they are recorded or not in a reliable way, the history of conflicts for water extends up to the civilization of humans [1][2][3][4]. Demand for various water usages made these conflicts more significant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inflow Forecast of Iranamadu Reservoir, Sri Lanka, under Projected Climate Scenarios Using Artificial Neural Networks

Karunanayake

Gunathilake

Rathnayake

2020

Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prediction of water resources for future years takes much attention from the water resources planners and relevant authorities. However, traditional computational models like hydrologic models need many data about the catchment itself. Sometimes these important data on catchments are not available due to many reasons. Therefore, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are useful soft computing tools in predicting real-world scenarios, such as forecasting future water availability from a catchment, in the absence of intensive data, which are required for modeling practices in the context of hydrology. These ANNs are capable of building relationships to nonlinear real-world problems using available data and then to use that built relationship to forecast future needs. Even though Sri Lanka has an extensive usage of water resources for many activities, including drinking water supply, irrigation, hydropower development, navigation, and many other recreational purposes, forecasting studies for water resources are not being carried out. Therefore, there is a significant gap in forecasting water availability and water needs in the context of Sri Lanka. Thus, this paper presents an artificial neural network model to forecast the inflows of one of the most important reservoirs in northern Sri Lanka using the upstream catchment’s rainfall. Future rainfall data are extracted using regional climate models for the years 2021–2050 and the inflows of the reservoir are forecasted using the validated neural network model. Several training algorithms including Levenberg–Marquardt (LM), BFGS quasi-Newton (BFG), scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) have been used to find the best fitting training algorithm to the prediction process of the inflows against the measured inflows. Results revealed that the LM training algorithm outperforms the other tests algorithm in developing the prediction model. In addition, the forecasted results using the projected climate scenarios clearly showcase the benefit of using the forecasting model in solving future water resource management to avoid or to minimize future water scarcity. Therefore, the validated model can effectively be used for proper planning of the proposed drinking water supply scheme to the nearby urban city, Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.

show abstract

China: A hydrological history

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

The Three Gorges Dam accelerates acidification of upland soils

The Three Gorges Dam accelerates acidification of upland soils

A historical overview of experimental hydrology in China

Inflow Forecast of Iranamadu Reservoir, Sri Lanka, under Projected Climate Scenarios Using Artificial Neural Networks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About