Human-induced regulations of river channels and implications for hydrological alterations in the Pearl River Delta, China |
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| Authors: | Qiang Zhang Yongqin David Chen Tao Jiang Xiaohong Chen Zufa Liu |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Water Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China;(2) Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Water Security in Southern China of Guangdong High Education Institute, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China;(3) Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China;(4) Centre of Strategic Environmental Assessment for China, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China |
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| Abstract: | Sound understanding of hydrological alterations and the underlying causes means too much for the water resource management
in the Pearl River Delta. Incision of river channels plays the key role in the hydrological alterations. As for the causes
behind the river channel incision, sand dredging within the river network of the Pearl River Delta is usually assumed to play
the overwhelming role in changes of geometric shapes of the river channels. Based on thorough analysis of well-collected data
of channel geometry, streamflow, sediment load and water level, this study exposes new findings, investigating possible underlying
causes behind the changes of the geometric shapes of the river channels at the Sanshui and Makou station. The results of this
study indicate: (1) different changing properties of the geometric shapes are identified at the Sanshui and Makou stations.
Larger magnitude of changes can be found in the river channel geometry of the cross section at the Sanshui station when compared
to that at the Makou station. Lower water level due to fast riverbed downcutting at the Sanshui station than that at the Makou
station is the major reason why the reallocation of streamflow occurred and hence the hydrological alterations over the Pearl
River Delta; (2) depletion of sediment load as a result of construction of water reservoirs in the middle and upper Pearl
River basin, sand dredging mainly in the Pearl River Delta and heavy floods all contribute much to the incision or deposition
of the riverbed. Regulations of erosion and siltation process of the river channel often alleviate the incision of the river
channels after a relatively long time span, and which makes it even harder to differentiate the factors causing the river
channel incision; (3) the intensifying urbanization in the lower Pearl River basin greatly alters the underlying surface properties,
which has the potential to shorten the recession of the flood event and may cause serious scouring processes and this role
of flash floods in the incision of the river channels can not be ignored. This study is of great scientific and practical
merits in improving human understanding of regulations of river channels and associated consequences with respect to hydrological
alterations and water resource management, particularly in the economically booming region of China. |
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