Flushing sediment through the Yellow river.The second largest river in China has been beset by probl
Flushing sediment through the Yellow river.The second largest river in China has been beset by problems of flooding, pollution and sediment silting behind dams for years. It failed to reach the sea most years in the 1990’s, until a digital management system was instituted over its whole basin in order to help manage it. The system integrates diverse data sets, such as satellite images, rainfall predictions and dozens of reservoir level and pollution monitors spread around the river, its reservoirs and tributaries. Remote controlled sluice gates can organise the flow of water towards different needs, whether agriculture or flushing pollutants and sediments down towards the sea. As a result, the pollution levels have fallen dramatically, and the dangerous levees towards the river’s end are being flushed away. They posed a flood risk and lowered the gradient preventing the river from reaching the sea. The system is getting an upgrade in order to create the world’s most advanced water rationing system, with the objective of restoring some of the damage resulting from human activity.The situation isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s a big improvement on the recent past. Centralising the system also forces a single management plan on the different provinces involved, in order to try and balance the needs of upstream and downstream users, and prevent individual provinces from taking more than their share. In a world where fresh water resources are under increasing strain, there seems to be few other options available to us than to try and allocate resources between competing needs.LozImage credit (spectators watch a controlled release at the Xiaolangdi Reservoir in Jiyuan): Reuters.http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/28/water-yellow-river-china -- source link
#china#yellow river#huang he#pollution#fresh water#sediment#flood