Problems of reservoir sedimentation in China

As there are many heavily sediment-laden rivers in China, with high sediment concentration and a large quantity of sediment load, the sedimentation problems of the reservoirs built on those rivers are so serious that the amount of sediment deposited in the reservoirs is great and the rate of sedimentation is accelerated. According to the statistics, up to the end of 1981, a total amount of 11.5×10⁹m³ of sediment were accumulated in those reservoirs, i.e. 14.2% of the total designed capacity were lost. The average annual loss in storage capacity reached 2.3 percent, being the highest in the world. Silting of impounding lakes not only has an effect on the benefits of the reservoirs and seriously threatens the life of reservoirs, but also results in many environmental problems which were not fully estimated in the planning of the reservoirs. In this paper, the situation of reservoir deposition in China are described from the following aspects: 1) the characteristics of hydrology and sediment of the rivers; 2) the seriousness of reservoir sedimentation in China; 3) problems caused by reservoir deposition; 4) the methods of minimizing sediment deposition, etc.