Impact of dam construction on precipitation: a regional perspective

Abstract

Context Numerous dams have been built in China to develop hydropower, a sustainable and clean energy source. In recent years, the impact of dam construction on the regional climate has gradually attracted the attention of researchers. Aims This study has evaluated the impact of large-scale dam construction on regional precipitation. Methods This paper used the precipitation data of more than 2400 national stations of the China National Meteorological Information Center from 1990 to 2012. The regional precipitation data before and after the construction of the Xiaolangdi Dam and the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River were analysed using geostatistical tools. Wavelet transform and Yamamoto signal-to-noise ratio analysis were further adopted. Key results Analysis of the variation points of precipitation characteristics confirmed the correlation between dam construction and regional precipitation; the precipitation values in the two dam study areas had an increasing trend after the completion of the dams, and the fitting trend line showed an obvious increasing trend. Conclusions According to the analysis of precipitation variation points, it can be concluded that the establishment of the dam affected the precipitation in the area of ∼200 km upstream and increased the precipitation value in this area. The study showed that dam construction has a strong correlation with regional precipitation. Implications It is speculated that the construction of super dams will have a greater impact on precipitation.