Hydrologic Alteration at the Upper and Middle Part of the Yangtze River, China: Towards Sustainable Water Resource Management Under Increasing Water Exploitation

Ali, Rawshan; Kuriqi, Alban; Abubaker, Shadan; Kisi, Ozgur

doi:10.3390/su11195176

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Hydrologic Alteration at the Upper and Middle Part of the Yangtze River, China: Towards Sustainable Water Resource Management Under Increasing Water Exploitation

^1,2,*

⁴ and

⁵

College of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China

Department of Petroleum, Koya Technical Institute, Erbil Polytechnic University, Erbil 44001, Kurdistan, Iraq

CERIS, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

⁴

Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Knowledge University, Erbil 44001, Kurdistan, Iraq

⁵

School of Technology, IIia State University, Tbilisi 0162, Georgia

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5176; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195176

Received: 15 August 2019 / Revised: 13 September 2019 / Accepted: 18 September 2019 / Published: 20 September 2019

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Uncertainty of Climate Change Impacts on Hydrology, Water Quality and Ecology)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

The human influence on the river ecosystem has increased in recent years to feed the growing demand for water to communities by constructing different water structures. It is essential to understand the potential impacts of water structures on river hydrologic regimes. Thus, this study investigates the influence of the cascade dams located upstream of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River on the river ecosystem. The study was carried out for the period 2003–2015 for both Cuntan and Miaohe stations. The analysis was conducted considering two periods, pre-impact; before the dam construction and post-impact; after the dam construction. The assessment was carried out using “Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration.” The results of this study revealed that the cascade dams built upstream of Three Gorges Dam has both positive and negative impacts at both stations. Flows were found to have positive impacts in July while low in October for both stations. The 1-day minimum flows were found to decrease by 7% over Miaohe Station while the 1-day maximum was decreased up to 2% in Cuntan. Overall, the results of the study indicate that there are undesirable impacts which should be adjusted to maintain the river ecosystem at an acceptable level compared to its natural state. It is expected that the findings of the study can guide water managers to adjust the hydropower operation sustainably. View Full-Text

Keywords: flow regime; hydrologic alteration; indicators of hydrologic alteration; range of variability approach; river conservation

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Ali, R.; Kuriqi, A.; Abubaker, S.; Kisi, O. Hydrologic Alteration at the Upper and Middle Part of the Yangtze River, China: Towards Sustainable Water Resource Management Under Increasing Water Exploitation. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5176. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195176

AMA Style

Ali R, Kuriqi A, Abubaker S, Kisi O. Hydrologic Alteration at the Upper and Middle Part of the Yangtze River, China: Towards Sustainable Water Resource Management Under Increasing Water Exploitation. Sustainability. 2019; 11(19):5176. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195176

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ali, Rawshan, Alban Kuriqi, Shadan Abubaker, and Ozgur Kisi. 2019. "Hydrologic Alteration at the Upper and Middle Part of the Yangtze River, China: Towards Sustainable Water Resource Management Under Increasing Water Exploitation" Sustainability 11, no. 19: 5176. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195176

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Hydrologic Alteration at the Upper and Middle Part of the Yangtze River, China: Towards Sustainable Water Resource Management Under Increasing Water Exploitation

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI