Sustainable Development and Management of Water Resource.ppt

Sustainable Development and Management of Water Resources in China Yongqin David Chen Department of Geography and Resource Management The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shatin, NT, Hong Kong Tel: 2609-6539 Fax: 2603-5006 Email: ydavidchen@cuhk.edu.hk Presentation Outline Spatial and temporal characteristics of water resources in China Water problems and challenges Mega water resources projects in the new millennium Why does the Yangtze River have flooding almost every year? Why does the Yellow River dry up in the middle and lower reaches in sequential years? Why has the groundwater table in the northern plain been dropping to a lower and lower level? Why have Liaohe, Haihe and Huihe almost become “sewage drainage channels”? Why does the fisheries suffer from red tides so often in the Pearl River Estuary? Why have the lakes on the Qinhai-Xizang Plateau been disappearing? Relatively large total but small per-capita amount Total annual renewable water resources: 2812.4 billion m3 (streamflow 2711.5 Bm3, groundwater 828.8 Bm3, duplication subtracted) Total amount - No. 6 after Brazil, Russian Federation, Canada, US, Indonesia in the world Per-capita amount - 2200 m3, only about 1/4 of the world average, ranked 109 in 149 countries and one of the 13 countries in severe shortage of water resources Water per unit area of farmland - 1888 m3/mu, about 80% of the world’s average Highly uneven temporal and spatial distribution Monsoon-dominated climate causes very distinctive wet (Apr - Sep) and dry (Oct - Mar) seasons in a Water Year Seasonal variation of streamflow: 60% from April to July in the South and over 80% from June to September in the North Interannual variation of streamflow: ratio of maximum over minimum greater 10 in the North and less than 5 in the South From humid to arid: a gradient from SE to NW Spatial distribution of water resources does not match with that of population, farmland and mineral resources Water problems and challen