Three Gorges Project Withstanding 2010 Peak Floods

The Three Gorges Project(TGP) on the Yangtze River(YR) is the largest hydro-power project in the world;it is now attracting the world wide attention.Possessing comprehensive utilization benefits mainly for flood control,power generation and navigation improvement,TGP is a vital and important project in harnessing and developing the YR.The Project primarily aims at flood control whose reservoir has a total storage capacity of 39.3 billion m3,22.15 billion m3 of which can be set for flood control.Construction of the project has greatly improved the flood control capacity in the middle and lower sections of the YR.In 2010 TGP has successfully withstood 3 peak floods,especially the one on July 20 with a frequency of once in 20-year,the largest since the construction of TGP.TGP as an eco-environmental project will be beneficial to ecological and environmental protection and low carbon economy and it will accelerate coordination of the economy,society,resources and environment and sustainable development along the valley,as well as the rapid development of Chinese economy.

Application and comparison of coaxial correlation diagram and hydrological model for reconstructing flood series under human disturbance

Intense human activities have greatly changed the flood generation conditions in most areas of the world, and have destroyed the consistency in the annual flood peak and volume series. For design flood estimation, coaxial correlation diagram and conceptual hydrological model are two frequently used tools to adjust and reconstruct the flood series under human disturbance. This study took a typical mountain catchment of the Haihe River Basin as an example to investigate the effects of human activities on flood regime and to compare and assess the two adjustment methods. The main purpose is to construct a conceptual hydrological model which can incorporate the effects of human activities. The results show that the coaxial correlation diagram is simple and widely-used, but can only adjust the time series of total flood volumes. Therefore, it is only applicable under certain conditions(e.g. There is a strong link between the flood peaks and volumes and the link is not significantly affected by human activities). The conceptual model is a powerful tool to adjust the time series of both flood peak flows and flood volumes over different durations provided that it is closely related to the catchment hydrological characteristics, specifically accounting for the effects of human activities, and incorporating expert knowledge when estimating or calibrating parameters. It is suggested that the two methods should be used together to cross check each other.

STUDY ON THE FREQUENCY AND PRINCIPLE OF FLOOD CATASTROPHE IN THE CHANGJIANG DELTA AND ITS NEIGHBORING REGIONS IN THE LAST 2000 YEARS

Documented materials, especially those about flooding catastrophe, are abundant comprehensive and well-preserved, which makes possible the systematical collection of materials about historical document about climate evolution in Changjiang (Yangtze) Delta region and its neighboring areas. We make good use of the exceptional information to discuss the genesis and principle of flooding in this region. Analysis shows that the main flooding periods in the studied region in the last 2000 years were the Western Jin Dynasty, Eastern Jin Dynasty, Northern and Southern Dynasties, Southern Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The periods with flooding peak values were the 4th century, 5th century, 7th century, 9th century, early 12th century, early 14th century, mid-15th century, and early 18th century A.D. Possibility of reappearance of flooding peak value in the early 21st century will be great, and the hazard prevention and the hazard reduction will be still hard.

FLOOD ROUTING MODELS IN CONFLUENT AND DIVIDING CHANNELS

By introducing a water depth connecting formula, the hydraulic equations in the dividing channel system were coupled and the relation of discharge distribution between the branches of the dividing channels can be yielded. In this manner, a numerical model for the confluent channels was established to study the variation of backwater effects with the parameters in the channel junction. The meeting of flood peaks in the mainstream and tributary can be analyzed with this model.The flood peak meeting is found to be a major factor for the extremely high water level in the mainstream during the 1998 Yangtze River flood. Subsequently the variations of discharge distribution and water level with channel parameters between each branch in this system were studied as well. As a result, flood evolution caused by Jingjiang River shortcut and sediment deposition in the entrance of dividing channels of the Yangtze River may be qualitatively elucidated.It is suggested to be an effective measure for flood mitigation to enhance regulation capability of reservoirs available upstream of the tributaries and harness branch entrance channels.

Analysis of the effect of regional lateral inflow on the flood peak of the Three Gorges Reservoir

The Three Gorges Region(TGR),located at the lower reach of the Upper Yangtze River Basin(UYRB) in China,suffers from heavy rainstorm frequently.The runoff generated from TGR composes an important part of the total flood at the famous Three Gorges Reservoir(TGRe).During the severe flood period in 1954,for example,the water from TGR accounted for up to 13.2% of the 30-days maximum flood volume of the UYRB.Considering the short and steep tributaries with rapid concentration,the regional lateral inflow(RLI) may induce more serious effect on the flood peak of the TGRe than the volume.However,hydrological data of the sparse gauge stations is too insufficient to evaluate the effect of RLI.This paper studied the impact by analyzing 880 flood events during 1956-2000.By comparing the observed hydrograph and simulated hydrograph with HEC-RAS software regarding no RLI,the effect of RLI on flood peak value and timing properties was identified and quantified.The variability of this effect among floods of different magnitudes was also analyzed.To evaluate the analysis uncertainty associated with the parameter of roughness coefficient,four sets of roughness coefficients from different research groups were employed in this study.The results showed that RLI contributes discharge of 3524 m3/s to flood peaks of the TGRe on average,with the contribution ratio of 15.9%.RLI contributes 12000 m3/s to the flood peaks larger than 50000 m3/s on average,with 25000 m3/s as its upper bound,while the contribution ratio can reach up to 50%,with an average of 20%.The variability of this effect is great among different events.Statistical analysis showed that to larger flood peak of the TGRe,RLI contributes more discharge with higher variability,and the contribution ratio and its variability are slightly larger,and events with higher contribution ratio occur more frequently.RLI can reshape the hydrograph,leading to earlier appearance of flood peak.This effect and its variability increase with the contribution ratio.This study has revealed that RLI plays an important role in large flood peak of the TGRe,which calls for more reliable flood forecasting methods to prolong the forecast lead time and improve the accuracy for the safety of the Three Gorges Dam and the protection of its lower reaches during severe flood disaster period.

Responses of flood peaks to land use and landscape patterns under extreme rainstorms in small catchments-A case study of the rainstorm of Typhoon Lekima in Shandong,China

Investigations of the formation mechanisms of flood peaks in small catchments facilitate flood prediction and disaster prevention under extreme rainstorms.However,there have been few studies on the re-sponses of flood peaks to land use landscape patterns using field surveys during extreme rainstorm events.Based on field data from 17 small catchments near the rainstorm center of Typhoon Lekima,7 landscape indices were chosen.The flood peak and its sensitivity to the land use landscape were investigated by combining remote sensing interpretation and related analysis.The conclusions are as follows:(1)The peak discharge of the small catchment was 2.36e56.50 m3/s,the peak modulus was 8.00 e48.89 m3/(s$km2),and the flood index K ranged from 3.61 to 4.55.(2)Under similar rainfall conditions,the flood peak modulus,K and the proportion of sloping cropland had significantly positive correlations(p<0.05).The flood peak modulus was significantly negatively correlated with the proportion of forest-grassland and terrace(p<0.05),and K and the proportion of forest-grassland and terraced land exhibited a negative correlation.(3)The flood peak modulus and K were positively correlated with the landscape fragmentation.(4)The sensitivities of small catchments to floods were evaluated to be moderate compared to K values from other studies.The ability of small catchments to cope with extreme rain-storms can be improved by increasing the areas of forest-grassland,and terraces and reducing landscape fragmentation.Our results could be applied to provide a basis for land use planning and support for the response against disasters caused by extreme floods.

Coupling analysis of short-term weather and runoff in an arid lake basin of China

Changes in the weather will cause variations in the hydrological system.Arid areas,with fragile hydrological systems,are very sensitive to changes in the weather,so the coupling analysis of short-term weather and runoff in arid areas is of great significance.The Daihai Lake is a closed inland lake in an arid area of China.In this paper,Weather Research and Forecasting model mode-Hydrological module(WRF-HYDRO)is used to simulate the coupling of weather and hydrology in the Daihai Lake Basin.Regional optimization of WRF-HYDRO is carried out to determine the optimal parameters.The optimal WRF-HYDRO model is applied to couple the short-term weather and runoff in the Daihai Lake Basin to reproduce several rainstorm and flood events.It is found that runoff infiltration parameter(REFKDT)in WRF-HYDRO is the parameter that has the most severe effect on runoff in the Daihai Lake Basin.WRF-HYDRO can capture the rainstorm moment of the rainstorm events in the Daihai Lake Basin,especially the first rainstorm moment,and its simulation accuracy is good.WRF-HYDRO has a strong ability to capture flood peak,but there is a discrepancy between WRF-HYDRO flood peak and Soil Conservation Service Curve Number(SCS-CN)calculation result at the flood peak moment.The northern part of Zuoyun County should guard against the occurrence of flood disaster in wet season.The coupling of weatherand hydrology can not only make up for the lack of runoff data in arid basins,but also provide a basis for water resources management and disaster prevention and mitigation in the basins.