Flood Management Strategies CASE STUDY

Question 1

Background information about flood management on the Yangtze River

Answer 1

Flows through China, 6380 km long, third longest river in world

Five major floods happened over the last centuary, 1954 killed 33,169 people. Over 18 million had to move

Hard engineering defence was done to prevent happening again

Question 2

What was the dam called that was built on the Yagtze?

Answer 2

The three gorges dam

Question 3

When did work start on three gorges dam?

Answer 3

Work began on 101m high dam in 1994

Question 4

Three facts about three gorges dam

Answer 4

Reservoir building up behind the dam, reservoir catches any food water which can slowly be released over time, can store around 22km3 of flood water

Largest hydroelectric power station in the world, flow of water turns 26 turbines built into dam

Locks have been built alongside the dam so ships can get past

Question 5

Pros of the three gorges dam

Answer 5

• Planned to provide 10% of China’s electricity
• Important symbol of China’s modernisation
• Burning 40 million tonnes of dirty polluting coal per year will be replaced by clean environmental friendly HEP, will reduce CO2 emissions by 120 million tonnes a year
• Millions of people protected from risk of future flooding
• Created many jobs in construction and stimulated other economic development
• China can’t industrialise further without HEP power from this dam

Question 6

Cons of the three gorges dam

Answer 6

• Reservoir flooded the homes of more than 1 million people along with the most fertile farmland
• Environmentalists argue that several smaller dams of Yangtze tributaries would have been a more efficient way of generating over and managing flooding
• Silt will be trapped behind the dam making farmland less fertile
• Habitats of rare and endangered animals e.g. Baiji have been disturbed
• Millions will die if dam collapses (earthquakes)
• Rehousing people in steeper and poker land will increase the dangers of soil erosion

Question 7

What are the two case studies that show flood management strategies?

Answer 7

Hard engineering = The Three Gorges Dam, China

Soft engineering = Abungdon, England