50,000 dams later: Erosion of the Yangtze River and its delta

Abstract

Using 50 years of hydrologic and bathymetric data, we show that construction of ~ 50,000 dams throughout the Yangtze River watershed, particularly the 2003 closing of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), has resulted in downstream channel erosion and coarsening of bottom sediment, and erosion of the Yangtze's subaqueous delta. The downstream channel from TGD reverted from an accretion rate of ~ 90 Mt (1Mt = 1000 000 t)/yr between the mid-1950 s and mid-1980 s to an erosion rate of ~ 60 Mt/yr after closing of the TGD. The delta front has devolved from ~ 125 Mm 3 (1 Mm 3 = 1000 000 m 3)/yr of sediment accumulation in the 1960 s and 1970 s, when river sediment load exceeded 450 Mt/yr, to perhaps 100 Mm 3/yr of erosion in recent years. As of 2007 erosion seemed to have been primarily centered at 5–8 m water depths; shallower areas remained relatively stable, perhaps in part due to sediment input from eroding deltaic islands. In the coming decades the Yangtze's sediment load will probably continue to decrease, and its middle-lower river channel and delta will continue to erode as new dams are built, and the South-to-North Water Diversion is begun.