Influence of the Three Gorges Project on the Water Resource Components of Poyang Lake Watershed: Observations from TRMM and GRACE

The Three Gorges Project (TGP) has received many criticisms about its potential effects on the changes in the downstream ecosystems. Poyang Lake is the largest body of water downstream of the TGP, and it is not immune to these changes. TRMM and GRACE data were introduced in this study to estimate river-lake water exchange, from which the hydrological responses of Poyang Lake could be identified. A significant decreasing trend of the runoff coefficient has been observed since 2003, resulting in 6.02 km3 more water discharge from the lake into the Yangtze River than under normal conditions. No significant interannual changes occurred in the water level or local precipitation, and GRACE observations revealed that groundwater discharge appeared to be the most likely compensation for the water loss. A novel approach, namely, the groundwater abnormality index (GAI), was developed to depict the water exchange using GRACE and surface water observations. Lower than normal GAIs were found between 2003 and 2005, reaching a minimum of −29.26 in October 2003, corresponding to ten times of the mean GAI during 2006–2012, clearly indicating a significant water exchange in Poyang Lake Basin from groundwater to surface water after the TGP impoundment.

[1]  W. E. Galloway,et al.  Reply to the comments of W. Helland-Hansen on "Towards the standardization of sequence stratigraphy" by Catuneanu et al. (Earth-Sciences Review 92(2009)1-33) , 2009 .

[2]  W. Feng,et al.  Evaluation of groundwater depletion in North China using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data and ground‐based measurements , 2013 .

[3]  Guiping Wu,et al.  Recent declines in China’s largest freshwater lake: trend or regime shift? , 2013 .

[4]  M. Cheng,et al.  Variations in the Earth's oblateness during the past 28 years , 2004 .

[5]  Qi Zhang,et al.  Effects of the Three Gorges Dam on Yangtze River flow and river interaction with Poyang Lake, China: 2003-2008 , 2012 .

[6]  Yan Wang,et al.  Stepwise decreases of the Huanghe (Yellow River) sediment load (1950–2005): Impacts of climate change and human activities , 2007 .

[7]  Xiaoling Chen,et al.  Satellites Capture the Drought Severity Around China's Largest Freshwater Lake , 2012, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[8]  Patrick Wu,et al.  Water storage changes in Three Gorges water systems area inferred from GRACE time-variable gravity data , 2007 .

[9]  Qi Hu,et al.  Annual and seasonal streamflow responses to climate and land-cover changes in the Poyang Lake basin, China , 2008 .

[10]  Z. Dai,et al.  Runoff characteristics of the Changjiang River during 2006: Effect of extreme drought and the impounding of the Three Gorges Dam , 2008 .

[11]  James W. Burnham,et al.  Strategic assessment of the magnitude and impacts of sand mining in Poyang Lake, China , 2010 .

[12]  Chong-Yu Xu,et al.  Suitability of the TRMM satellite rainfalls in driving a distributed hydrological model for water balance computations in Xinjiang catchment, Poyang lake basin , 2012 .

[13]  J. Syvitski,et al.  Impact of Humans on the Flux of Terrestrial Sediment to the Global Coastal Ocean , 2005, Science.

[14]  Charles S. Zender,et al.  Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) detection of water storage changes in the Three Gorges Reservoir of China and comparison with in situ measurements , 2011 .

[15]  M. Mccabe,et al.  Closing the terrestrial water budget from satellite remote sensing , 2009 .

[16]  F. Landerer,et al.  Accuracy of scaled GRACE terrestrial water storage estimates , 2012 .

[17]  Tong Jiang,et al.  Interactions of the Yangtze river flow and hydrologic processes of the Poyang Lake, China , 2007 .

[18]  Qi Zhang,et al.  Capabilities of Satellite-Based Precipitation to Estimate the Spatiotemporal Variation of Flood/Drought Class in Poyang Lake Basin , 2013 .

[19]  S. Swenson,et al.  Remote sensing of groundwater storage changes in Illinois using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) , 2006 .

[20]  T. Nakayama,et al.  Impact of the Three-Gorges Dam and water transfer project on Changjiang floods , 2013 .

[21]  D. Chambers,et al.  Estimating Geocenter Variations from a Combination of GRACE and Ocean Model Output , 2008 .

[22]  J. Knox.  Floodplain sedimentation in the Upper Mississippi Valley: Natural versus human accelerated , 2006 .

[23]  J. Milliman,et al.  Seasonal variations of sediment discharge from the Yangtze River before and after impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam , 2009 .

[24]  Jiang Tong,et al.  Runoff coefficients change and the analysis of the relationship between climate factors and runoff coefficients in Poyang Lake Basin (China):1955-2002 , 2007 .

[25]  E. Roose,et al.  Aggregate stability as an indicator of soil susceptibility to runoff and erosion; validation at several levels , 2002 .

[26]  A. Cazenave,et al.  Time-variable gravity from space and present-day mass redistribution in theEarth system , 2010 .

[27]  Chuanmin Hu,et al.  Human induced turbidity changes in Poyang Lake between 2000 and 2010: Observations from MODIS , 2012 .

[28]  Chong-Yu Xu,et al.  Distinguishing the relative impacts of climate change and human activities on variation of streamflow in the Poyang Lake catchment, China , 2013 .

[29]  Chuanmin Hu,et al.  Satellite observations make it possible to estimate Poyang Lake’s water budget , 2011 .

[30]  Xiaoling Chen,et al.  Assessment of inundation changes of Poyang Lake using MODIS observations between 2000 and 2010 , 2012 .

[31]  Guishan Yang,et al.  Environmental impact assessments of the Three Gorges Project in China: Issues and interventions , 2013 .

[32]  Jens Wickert,et al.  The Falling Lake Victoria Water Level: GRACE, TRIMM and CHAMP Satellite Analysis of the Lake Basin , 2008 .

[33]  J. Famiglietti,et al.  Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India , 2009, Nature.

[34]  Y. Zong,et al.  Human impacts on the Changjiang (Yangtze) River basin, China, with special reference to the impacts on the dry season water discharges into the sea , 2001 .

[35]  Yonghong Yi,et al.  Spatial and temporal variation of runoff in the Yangtze River basin during the past 40 years , 2008 .