Environmental impacts of the Yangtze Three Gorges project: An overview of the Chinese-German research cooperation

The construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China has a great influence on the ecosystems involved. In order to investigate these environmental effects in the Yangtze catchment area as well as downstream of the dam, Forschungszentrum Julich has organized a research network for the Chinese and German partners. In the research fields of (1) interaction water/sediment/contaminants, (2) vegetation/biodiversity, (3) changing land use/erosion/mass movements, and (4) atmosphere, the partners have accumulated a great deal of expertise in handling major issues and also in developing models and recommendations for action. The following provides an overview of the research network and the research tasks. On the German side, five projects in research field (3) have been in operation since 2008. The results are reported in contributions by Ehret et al., Jaehnig and Cai, Schonbrodt et al., and Seeber et al.. Another five projects in research field (1) have started by September 2010. The research tasks undertaken in these five projects are presented below.