The influence of the three Gorges

Adverse effects of the Three Gorges Project

(1) Natural disasters

The huge storage capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir will inevitably increase the frequency of earthquakes in the reservoir area. In the future, due to the long-term immersion of the lower part of the mountain on both sides of the Three Gorges, the frequency of landslides, landslides and mudslides will increase, which will be the main geological disasters that may be caused by the Three Gorges Project.

However, the project proponent only considers the static state of the geology, without considering the possible qualitative change of the geological conditions after impoundment.

In 2007, the average temperature in the Three Gorges reservoir area was significantly higher than normal, and the annual precipitation was more than normal.

Meteorological disasters occur frequently, among which geological disasters such as rainstorms and floods and landslides and mudslides caused by them are more prominent, and seismic activity remains at a low level.

Rainstorm and flood: From April to September, 2007, the precipitation in the reservoir area and its adjacent areas showed the characteristics of more before and less after, with frequent processes, great intensity and large total amount, which caused serious rainstorm and flood disasters.

In April 1 and April 2 1, June 29, August 1 ~ 2 and September 27 ~ 28, there were four local rainstorms in the reservoir area, May 23 ~ 24, May 30 ~ June 1 and June/kloc-0.

According to incomplete statistics, a large-scale heavy precipitation occurred in the reservoir area on May 23-24, causing 20 counties (districts) such as Pengshui, Fengjie, Fuling and Fengdu in Chongqing and 4 counties (cities, districts) such as Tuanfeng, Yidu, Lichuan and Shennongjia forest areas in Hubei Province to be affected. 165438.

On July 17, the daily precipitation of Tongliang, Bishan and Shapingba in Chongqing reached 179.5 mm, 258.0 mm and 262.8 mm respectively, which was the maximum since meteorological records, and the daily precipitation of Shapingba was the maximum since 1892.

The heavy rain caused the wall of the "Zhazidong" in the famous red tourist martyrs' tomb scenic spot in the mountain city of Chongqing to collapse and the cell was destroyed. The scenic spot suffered the biggest rainstorm disaster since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Geological disasters: Experts said that after the completion of the Three Gorges Reservoir, a large number of low-lying mountains including cities, market towns and villages were gradually submerged. Long-term immersion softens the submerged mountain and rushes into the low-lying mining goaf, which will lead to bank collapse and landslide.

In addition, the periodic fluctuation of water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir in winter and summer (flood season) will also cause pressure on the areas along the reservoir and induce various geological disasters.

From April to July, 2007, heavy rainfall caused many geological disasters such as landslides and mudslides in the reservoir area and its adjacent areas, resulting in more than 10 deaths and direct economic losses of hundreds of millions of yuan.

Landslides and debris flows mainly occurred in Pengshui County and fengjie county in April. May occurred in Qingtaiping Town and Shuibuya Town, Badong County, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province; Levin Town, Xingshan County, Yichang City; Gao Qiao Township and Shuiyuesi Town; Jingyang section of Jianshi County, Enshi Prefecture; Han Jia Town, Pengshui County, Chongqing; Shuibuya Town, guandu town, Badong County; June occurred in Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County of Hubei Province, Qingtaiping Town of Badong County, Tongnan County, Pengshui County, Wanzhou District and other places. It happened in liangping county and Tongnan County in Chongqing in July.

On June 22nd, within a few hours, a large area of landslide occurred in Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County, 1 18.

Lightning strike: From April to August, 2007, lightning strikes occurred many times in the reservoir area and its adjacent areas, especially in Chongqing, resulting in 2 1 person's death, and the disaster losses were heavier than in previous years.

Among them, in April 1 day, lightning strikes in Dianjiang and Qijiang in Chongqing caused 5 deaths; On May 23rd, a lightning strike accident occurred in Xingye Village Primary School in Yihe Town, Kaixian County, Chongqing, resulting in 7 primary school students' deaths, 19 serious injuries and 25 minor injuries.

Strong winds and hail: In 2007, strong convective weather such as strong winds and hail occurred frequently in the reservoir area and its adjacent areas, with a wide range of points and a long time span, which occurred one after another from spring to summer, and the disaster losses were heavier than the previous year.

According to statistics, more than 50 counties have been hit by local strong convective weather such as strong winds and hail, resulting in three deaths, more than 2.3 million people affected, more than 83,000 houses damaged, and economic losses due to the disaster exceeded 380 million yuan.

Fog: In the winter and late autumn of 2006/2007, foggy weather frequently occurred in most parts of the western part of the reservoir area, which affected roads, railways, civil aviation, river transportation and other transportation to varying degrees, brought inconvenience to people's travel during the Spring Festival, and caused major traffic accidents, which led to the decline of air quality and affected human health.

On February 7, a serious traffic accident occurred in Hefeng County, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, which caused 16 deaths and 16 injuries due to rain and fog.

1 65438+1October 9, Chongqing airport was blocked by heavy fog, and only1hour caused 30 inbound and outbound flights to be delayed, 4 flights were cancelled, and 4,000 passengers were stranded at the airport; Eight expressways, including Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway and Chongqing-Yichang Expressway, have successively implemented traffic control; The waterway Chaotianmen Sandu route was banned for 4 hours.

Drought: In 2007, the drought in the reservoir area was generally light.

In the winter of 2006/2007, due to the severe high temperature and drought in Sichuan and Chongqing last summer, the storage of reservoirs and paddy fields in Chongqing was obviously less, the river water level generally hovered in the low water level area, and the groundwater dropped sharply. The water storage capacity of Chongqing water conservancy project is less than 50% of the water storage capacity in the same period in history. There are 6.5438+0.5 million people and 980,000 large livestock in the city with temporary drinking water difficulties and crops suffering from drought 1654.

Recently, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River suffered the worst drought in 50 years, which made people focus on the Three Gorges Project again.

On May 6th, 2008, the executive meeting of the State Council discussed and approved the follow-up work plan for the Three Gorges Project, which started in 2009.

(2) immigration.

Resettlement is the biggest difficulty of the Three Gorges Project, and the resettlement funds account for 45% of the total investment of the project.

After the Three Gorges Reservoir is completed, it will flood 129 towns, including two medium-sized cities such as Wanzhou and Fuling, and a dozen small cities. There will be1130,000 immigrants, which is unique in the history of world engineering, and if the water level at the reservoir tail exceeds the forecast, the number of new immigrants will increase.

Resettlement is mainly solved by moving backward or nearby. However, it was later found that the reservoir flooded a large amount of cultivated land, resulting in a large population and a small population in the entire reservoir area, and the ecological environment tended to deteriorate. So the rural population has another immigration method, and the whole family is arranged by * * * to move to other provinces. At present, about140,000 immigrants from the reservoir area have moved to Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi and other places.

The Three Gorges Project adopts the mode of "development migration", that is, at the same time of migration, large-scale infrastructure construction and industrial construction are also carried out, with the fundamental purpose of improving people's living standards.

In addition to the funds allocated by the Three Gorges Construction Fund, the Three Gorges Corporation will also pay a resettlement fee to the local authorities every year for several years after the power station is put into operation.

In addition, the state also requires 2/kloc-0 provinces and cities across the country, and each province supports a county in the Three Gorges reservoir area.

However, the current situation is that although the infrastructure construction in immigrant towns is relatively fast, the industrial development is poor, a large number of relocated enterprises go bankrupt, and the reservoir area as a whole is in a state of industrial hollowing out, with slow economic growth and high unemployment rate, which has triggered a series of social problems, such as the "Wanzhou Incident" that led tens of thousands of people to surround the * * * organs.

(3) Sediment deposition and water level

Because of the lessons of Sanmenxia hydropower station, sediment problem has always been the top priority in the technical discussion of the Three Gorges Project.

According to estimates, the sediment concentration in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is about 0.2 kg per cubic meter/kloc-0, and the amount of sediment passing through the dam site is more than 500 million tons every year.

Before the construction of the Three Gorges Project, a large amount of these sediments were deposited in the tortuous Jingjiang reach, which raised the water level of the river bed and threatened the safety of the whole Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain.

When the Three Gorges Reservoir is formed, due to the change of water potential and the influence of backwater in the reservoir tail, sediment will inevitably accumulate in the reservoir, especially in the dam and reservoir tail (affected by backwater).

Opponents of the project, such as Huang Wanli, believe that the rivers in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are full of pebbles with large particles, and it will be extremely difficult to discharge after the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, which will cause congestion and extend upstream, thus affecting Chongqing.

Then in June 5438 +2002 10, the State Council approved the Three Gorges Corporation to build four giant hydropower stations on the Jinsha River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River: Wudongde, Baihetan, Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba. One of the purposes of the construction is to share and slow down the sediment deposition in the Three Gorges reservoir area, which has once again attracted some people's attention to the sediment problem in the Three Gorges reservoir area.

As controversial as sediment deposition, there is also the problem of water level.

After the Three Gorges impounded to135m, it was found that the water level difference between the dam and the reservoir tail was as high as 34.7m, far exceeding the 0.4m considered in the engineering demonstration report, so it was feared that Chongqing might be flooded after the Three Gorges impounded completely.

(4) the influence of places of interest

The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River is a famous scenic spot in China. It starts from Baidicheng, fengjie county, Chongqing, and winds about 200 kilometers to Nanjinguan, Yichang, Hubei. It consists of Qutang gorge, Wuxia gorge and Xiling gorge. Along the way, the terrain is steep, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, and there are many historical sites.

After the impoundment of the reservoir, the canyon feeling of the Three Gorges will be weakened to some extent. Since11990s, tourism agencies publicized "Farewell to the Three Gorges Tour" with great fanfare, it is generally believed that the scenery of the Three Gorges after impoundment no longer exists. So since 2003, the tourism of the Three Gorges has plummeted.

After the impoundment of the Three Gorges, Baiheliang will be submerged forever, and the cultural relics department has built a huge underwater pressure-free transparent container around it, which is convenient for tourists to watch and scholars to study, making it the first underwater museum in the world.

The local * * * also moved the ancient towns with thousands of years of history, such as dachang town and Quyuan Temple, and protected the original Baidi City on three sides, making it an island on the river, while the ancient cities that cannot be moved and protected, such as Kuizhou (fengjie county), can only be buried underwater forever.

(5) Ecological environment impact

The impact of the Three Gorges Project on the environment and ecology is very extensive, among which the impact on the reservoir area is the most direct and significant, and it also has a significant impact on the Yangtze River basin. Some people even think that the Three Gorges Project will bring about great changes in the global climate and marine environment.

What people in the reservoir area are most worried about is that the impact of the Three Gorges Project on the environment comes from the pollution of the reservoir.

At present, sewage and domestic garbage discharged by towns and tourists on both sides of the Three Gorges are directly discharged into the Yangtze River without treatment.

After impoundment, because the water flow is still, pollutants can't flow down in time and accumulate in the reservoir, which has caused water quality deterioration and garbage floating, and may cause infectious diseases. Some towns collect domestic water from other sources.

At the same time, a large number of immigrants reclaimed wasteland, which also aggravated water pollution and caused soil erosion.

In this regard, in order to solve the pollution problem, the local * * * is vigorously building sewage treatment plants and landfill sites. If it is found that the pollution is too serious, it is also possible to build a dam to increase the discharge to realize water exchange.

According to the operation experience of Gezhouba Hydropower Station, the Three Gorges Project will have a serious impact on the surrounding ecology.

Because of the dam, fish can't pass through the Three Gorges normally, and their living habits and heredity will change.

After the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir, more than 560 species of rare terrestrial plants will be submerged, but most of them are also distributed above the submerged line. Only Selaginella laxiflora and Clematis chinensis are completely below the submerged line and have been transplanted.

After the impoundment of the Three Gorges, the water area will expand and the water evaporation will increase, which will reduce the temperature difference between day and night in the nearby areas and change the climate environment in the reservoir area.

Due to the change of water potential and sediment concentration, the Three Gorges may also change the downstream river flow direction and alluvial degree, and may even have some impact on the East China Sea, thus changing the global environment.

However, considering the interoperability of oceans and the inflow of water from many important tributaries, such as Xiangjiang River, Hanjiang River and Ganjiang River, below the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River 1000 kilometers, it is estimated that it will not have a great impact on the global marine and climate environment.

Moreover, the change of the environment is formed by many variable factors, which is extremely complicated, so it is impossible to determine the detailed degree of the environmental impact of the Three Gorges Project.

Since the construction of the Three Gorges Project, there have been many water pollution incidents of "duckweed and water hyacinth growing wildly" in Pengxi River.

Peng Shulin, chief engineer of Zigui County Geological Disaster Prevention and Control Center, said that domestic and foreign scholars' research shows that the completion of large reservoirs will have an impact on the environment and ecology of the surrounding reservoir areas, and it is generally believed that this impact will last for about 20 years before it tends to be stable.

Based on this, it is inferred that in the next 10 years, the monitoring and management of geological disasters in the Three Gorges reservoir area should not be taken lightly.

According to the report of China Three Gorges Project, in April 2002, the climate in the Three Gorges dam area was abnormal, and the temperature did not increase gradually with the arrival of summer, but showed a downward trend.

At the end of April, the average temperature was less than 12 degrees Celsius. In mid-April, large-scale snowfall occurred in the surrounding mountainous areas. There were three cooling processes in that month, and the temperature difference rose sharply.

In addition, the precipitation in April was 236.5 mm, which was the highest in the dam-break area 10, breaking the highest in Yichang area 1 18. "The weather in the Three Gorges dam area is complex and intense, which is rare in the same period in the past 50 years."

Since the Three Gorges Project started in 1992, the state has invested nearly 40 billion yuan in water pollution prevention and control in view of the possible adverse impact on the ecological environment in the Three Gorges reservoir area and its upper reaches.

Ⅰ. Generation of water level fluctuation zone

Water level fluctuation zone, or water level fluctuation zone, is a unique phenomenon of reservoirs, which refers to the land temporarily exposed on the water surface from below the normal water level of reservoirs to above the flood control limit water level.

After the Three Gorges Project is fully completed, the water level will be175m in winter, and the flood control level will be reduced to145m in summer. The land exposed by the 30m water level difference is a water level fluctuation zone.

According to incomplete statistics, the area of the fluctuating zone in the Three Gorges reservoir area is close to 400 square kilometers.

The impact of the fluctuating zone on the ecological environment of the Three Gorges reservoir area mainly comes from three aspects. Zhou Wei said, first, because there is no vegetation cover, this part of the land will give people a feeling of "desertification" when it comes out in summer; Secondly, the sludge and garbage precipitated after soaking in water in winter may produce odor in summer, which may breed bacteria and parasites and have a certain impact on the water body; Thirdly, because this part of the land is not covered by vegetation, it reduces the ability to deal with non-point source pollution in agricultural production.

Ⅱ rare organisms

A few days ago, at the Chinese sturgeon research institute in Yichang, Hubei, the reporter saw that the artificially bred Chinese sturgeon was "living" happily.

According to experts, the construction of the Three Gorges Project will have some impact on local terrestrial vivid plants and aquatic animals and plants. There are 4 species of terrestrial vertebrates and 22 species of second-class protected animals in the reservoir area.

There are many kinds of terrestrial plants affected by the Three Gorges Reservoir, involving 120 families, 358 genera and 550 species.

According to the report "The Future of Dams and Ecosystems" jointly edited by WWF and World Resources Institute, dam construction threatens freshwater ecosystems. There are 2/kloc-0 rivers and their basins in the world with serious ecological degradation, and the Yangtze River basin in China ranks first.

For a long time, the Yangtze River has been the center of terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity, with 322 species of fish and 169 species of amphibians.

Due to the influence of the dam, the animals listed as extremely endangered by the World Conservation Union, including Chinese alligator, Chinese sturgeon, finless porpoise and white crane, are in great danger.

Lu Jianjian, a professor at the Estuary Research Institute of East China Normal University, revealed that in the mid-1980s, a total of 126 species of aquatic benthos were observed in the Yangtze River estuary, and by 2002, only 52 species were observed.

A large number of organic substances have been brought into the East China Sea, resulting in frequent red tides in the waters near Zhoushan Archipelago in China in recent years.