4/10/07

Flood and Flood Control:

The Yangtze

The Flood Hazard

The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world. It rises on the
Tibetan Plateau and flows 6380km to the East China Sea, just north of
Shanghai. Although always prone to flooding, the frequency and
intensity have increased in recent times and the effects have become
greater as population and human activity in the basin have grown.
- 1931: 140,000 deaths and an estimated 28 to 40 million people
affected
- 1954: 33,000 deaths
- 1981 and 1991: Both floods submerge large areas
- 1995: 1,300 deaths and up to 100 million affected.
- 1998: Worst flood for over half a century with the rive,tr in
places, reaching its highest ever recorded level-a level that was
maintained for over two months., There were an estimated
3,000 deaths, 5.6 million homes washed away, 30 million made
homeless and huge areas of crops destroyed. The Yangtze rose
steadily during June and by early July 100,000 soldiers and
police were working in teams 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, strengthening the Jingjiang and other levees. On 21 July
an unprecedented 280mm of rain fell on Wuhan in 24 hours and,
the next day, the city experienced the first of several flood peaks
which were to pass over two months. By 2nd August, Dongting
Lake had reached an all-time high (meaning there was nowhere
left for surplus water to go) and some cities, like Yueyang, had
already been submerged for over 30 days. By now the Chinese
authorities admitted, for the first time, that they were allowing
the Yangtze to flood many smaller towns and villages in order to
protect larger settlements.
- 1999: By mid-July 240 deaths, 1.84 million evacuated and
660,000 ha of cropland flooded.

Causes of Flooding
- Large areas of the Yangtze basin receive high annual amounts of
rain
- Most of this rain is seasonal and it is usually intensive
- The rains arrive as temperatures rise and there is rapid snow
and glacier melt in China’s western mountains.
- Large areas of the upper basin were deforested after 1950
(during Chairman Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”). Estimates
 suggest that one-third of the forest was cleared between them
and 1988. Deforestation reduced interception and increased both
runoff and soil erosion which, in turn, caused the bed of the river
to rise even higher above its floodplain.
- Wetlands, which had previously absorbed extra water, had been
drained.

Flood Control
The following account ahs been adapted from a book published by the
China Three Gorges Project Development Corporation in 1999.
“The plains of the middle and lower Yangtze, a region where Chinese
industry and agriculture are of major importance, are constantly
menaced by the flood hazard. This is mainly because much of the land
lies below the level of the river and relies upon 30,000 km of levees for
its protection. Even in a normal year, the level of the Yangtze can vary
by 30m. Between 185 BC and 1911, more than 200 floods were
recorded-about one in every ten years. Since then, the frequency and
severity of flooding has increased. In the last 50 years, attempts have
been made to control the river against a flood height with:
- a 10 to 20 year frequency by repairing and strengthening
existing levees
- A 20 to 50 year frequency by a diverting water into large nearby
lakes such as Lake Dongting and b creating flood diversion
areas. Unfortunately the land to which excess floodwater is
directed is also fairly highly populated- e.g. over 400,000 people
live in the Jingjiang flood diversion area. (The Chinese have only
recently admitted that poor rural areas are sacrificed in order to
protect larger, richer urban areas such as Wuhan.)

The region at greatest risk lies between Yichang and Wuhan. On the
Yangtze’s north bank is the Jingjiang levee, a flood bank 180 km long
and with a height of 12-16 m. The levee protects 50,000 km2 of land,
of which two thirds is high-quality farmland, and where over 7 million
people live 7 to 10m below the flood level of the river. Should the
Jingjiang levee be overtopped, there would be heavy economic losses
as well as of human life.”

The Three Gorges Dam is, at present, being built upriver form Yichang.
One, if not the main, benefit of the dam will be its ability to store
water from a flood with a frequency of 1 in 100 years. Should a 1 in
1000-year-frequency flood occur, an water in excess of the dam’s
capability could be stored in the existing flood diversion areas. Those
in favour of the dam argue that as the river’s discharge can be
controlled and the flood water released gradually, then places down
river will be safe.

Opponents of the project point out that, once the scheme is completed
in 2007, a lake 600 km long and with a water level 70 m higher than
that of the present river, will have formed behind the dam. The
increased water level will drown numerous settlements, forcing 1.3
million people to move home. So to reduce the flood threat in one part
of the Yangtze basin, other places will be permanently flooded. Also
with the loss of the land over 12,000 SSSIs.