Preface III of My Book on Yellow River Research and Management Strategy (by Mr. Guoying Li, YRCC Commissioner)

An unbalanced relationship between water and sediment with less water but more sediment is the outstanding issue of the Yellow River. The main direction of harnessing the Yellow River should focus on developing a harmony relationship between water and sediment. With the implementation of Water and Soil Conservation Project of the Loss Plateau, sediment that comes into Yellow River can be reduced to the greatest extent. At the same time, how to make full use of the sediment transport characteristics of the hyperconcentrated flood, and the potential sediment transport capacity of the natural channel to transport as much sediment as possible to sea, becomes the key technical issue of dealing with the hyperconcentrated flood.

Focusing on the dynamic features, transport principles and processing technology of the hyperconcentrated flood, unremitting long term research and in-depth analysis have been carried out by domestic and foreign scholars throughout the years. Many breakthroughs in understandings were obtained, which provides solid scientific supports for the comprehensive sediment management strategies like “block, discharge, regulate, release and dredge”. For three decades on ends, the author of this book painstakingly devoted himself to the research of managing the Yellow River. From the fundamental characteristics of the hyperconcentrated flood, and the analysis on comparing the field data collected along the main stem and tributaries, he made an important conclusion that a narrow and deep channel is suitable for transporting hyperconcentrated flow. Furthermore, he proposed the necessity of developing the hyperconcentrated flood. With the research on the operation mode of Xiaolangdi Reservoir, he proposed “sediment should be regulated on a multi-year basis, and it should be released at the right time”, and he proved the feasibility of creating hyperconcentrated flood by combined reservoir operations. With the research on regulations of meandering reaches in the lower Yellow River, he proposed the two-bank training strategy to stabilize the main channel, and he studied on constructing an efficient flood discharge and sediment transport channel.

This book focuses on illustrating the following four key topics:

(1)   It introduces flood discharge/sediment transport characteristics and potentials of the narrow and deep channel. With the analysis on the mechanism and the condition of a phenomenon called “the more sediment comes in, the more sediment will be transported.”,  it also explains the dynamics and evolution rules of the hyperconcentrated flood, reasons for abrupt increase of flood peaks, friction characteristics of hyperconcentrated flow, influences of the change in sediment concentration and energy slope on sediment transport, erosion during rising and deposition during the falling of a flood event in an alluvial river, and reasons for the huge flood discharge and sediment transport capacity of narrow and deep channel.

(2)    It illustrates the principles of variation in the meandering reaches, and conditions of the river pattern transformation, and it provides methods to regulate the meandering reaches.

(3)    It explains the key technologies of flow and sediment regulation by the reservoir, application rules and control conditions of multi-year sediment regulations,   mechanical properties of reservoir sediment, possibilities that the hyperconcentrated flood can be created during reservoir emptying, flow and sediment regulation by combined reservoir operations, results of the reduced sediment deposition after multi-year sediment regulations, and the amount of water required for sediment transport that can be saved.

(4)    It explains the outstanding issues in harnessing meandering reaches, causes for the secondary suspended river, analysis on whether the production dikes should be demolished or not, comparisons of the pros and cons between various river training plans, and the necessities of two-bank training. It also provides theories and technologies of how to construct an efficient channel for flood discharge and sediment transport.

It cannot be denied that some views and opinions in this book are still in debates at the theoretical and practical level of studying the Yellow River issues. However, it should also be noted that due to the complex nature of the Yellow River, there are unavoidable disagreements in understandings and management strategies. Actually, some essential debates are very beneficial. The sparkles inspired by collisions between different opinions usually reflect the deep insights of the truth. Just like the Yellow River, which accepts numerous tributaries and flows into the ocean, for harnessing this river, we should allow different opinions, gather their intelligence, take new steps continuously, and march toward the new era. The author of this book, Prof. Pu Qi, has pursued his career of studying the Yellow River for several decades. Reading between the lines, the reader can reveal his assiduous efforts in exploiting the principles of managing the Yellow River, and also the genuine knowledge and profound opinions. I sincerely believe with the publication of this book, great references will be provided for the research on natural principles of the Yellow River, and then to the future developments of management strategies.

Mr. Guoying Li, Professor and Senior Engineer, Commissioner of the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC), Ministry of Water Resources, P.R. China

January 22, 2009

Society and Economics of the Yellow River Watershed

There are 172 million populations in the basin of the Yellow River and its flood-affected areas, (97.8 million in the basin), around 15.1% of the total population in China, and the cultivated land area is about 0.28 billion mu (0.18 billion mu in the basin), around 19.4% of that in China. The total area of land in the Yellow River basin is 1.19 billion mu (including the inner basin), 8.3% of the country's land, most of which is mountainous and hilly area, 40% and 35% of the basin area respectively, the plain area is only 17%. The rate of the cultivation is 15.1% in the basin, the arable land is 0.18 billion mu, 1.83 mu per person, 1.5 times of that in the whole country, most areas having abundant light and heat resources, and large potentials for agricultural production. There are 0.153 billion mu forest land, the forest-covered rate is 12.9%, and there are 0.419 billion mu grassland, taking up 35.2% of the basin area. In the entire basin, there are also 30 million mu wasteland convenient for reclaiming, largely located in the upland along the Yellow River from Heishanxia to Hekou Town and the delta of the Yellow River's estuary. It is better reserve land recourse for cultivation in China.

There are abundant mineral resources in the Yellow River basin, 114 kinds of minerals were found in 1990. Of the 45 kinds of important minerals having been found in the country, this area has 37 kinds. Such minerals as thulium, columbium,gesso, glass silicon raw materials,coal, alum-clay mines, molybdenum, fire-resistant clay, and so on have the national advantage (reserves taking up above 32% of the national reserves). The natural alkali, sulphur-iron ore, gray rock for cement, tungsten, copper, rock-gold have the regional advantage (reserves taking up 10%~16% of the national reserves). The conditions of mine formation are diverse and the distribution of minerals is wide, but also relatively concentrated, offering advantages of utilization. There are 11 mine-concentrated areas to form all kinds of base and different scale production base for intensive exploitation and utilization.

The installed capacity of hydropower that can be exploited is 31.85 million kw in the Yellow River basin. The power output is 117.9 billion kwh per year, ranking the second among the rivers of China. 91% of the total hydropower resources is distributed in the main stream of the Yellow Rive, for example, the section from Longyangxia to Qingtongxia in the upper reaches and the north main stream in the middle reaches. They have better conditions for hydropower cascade exploitation, the loss caused by submerge is small, the technical economy is superior, and the comprehensive utilization benefits are remarkable.

Most area of the Yellow River basin has been explored for agricultural economy because of the warm climate, enough light and heat and abundant soil resources. The Ningxia-Mongolia Hetao Plain on the upper reaches, the Guanzhong Plain in the middle reaches and the Huanghuai Plain in the lower reaches, are important agricultural bases because of the smooth landform, abundant water resources, convenient irrigation, dense population and better condition for inhabitation. The chief agricultural products take the important place in China, such as wheat, cotton, oil plants, tobacco, and so on. The total agricultural output value reached 103.5 billion RMB in the total basin and the plain in the lower reaches, taking up 13.7% of the total agricultural output value of the nation in 1990, among which 58.5 billion RMB was obtained in the plain in the lower reaches, taking up 7.6% of the total of the nation; the total output of the foodstuff was 63.35 million tons, taking up 14.6% of the total of the country, among which 33.24 million tons were got in the plain in the lower reaches, taking up 7.6% of the total of the country. The total output of the cotton was 1.76 million tons, about 39% of the total of the nation, among which 1.54 million tons were produced in the plain area in the lower reaches, taking up 34% of the total of the country; the total output of oil plants was 2.39 million tons, taking up 14.8% of the total of the country, among which 1 million ton was cultivated in the plain area in the lower reaches, taking up 5.4% of the total of the whole country.

There have been remarkable progresses in industry in the Yellow River basin and the plain in the lower reaches since new China was founded. Many kinds of modern industry were built and developed, especially energy, metallurgy, machine-manufacturing and textile industry, and many industrial cities sprang up, for instance, Xining, Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Baotou, Huhehaote, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Jinan, and so on. In recent years, light industry and village and township enterprises which have been ignored develop rapidly and the industrial yield increases quickly because industrial structure is regulated in the whole country. The total industrial output value reached 269.5 billion RMB in the basin of the Yellow River in 1990, occupying 11.3% of the total of the nation of the same year. The energy and mineral resources are abundant in the basin area of the Yellow River. Hydropower in the upper reaches, coal and natural gas in the middle reaches, Zhongyuan Oil Field in the lower reaches and Shengli Oil Field in the estuary delta area. The alum clay, plumbum, zinc, copper, uranium, thulium, and so on take an important place in our country. The zone along the Yellow River is one of the 3 main axes (the zone along the sea, the zone along the Yangtse Rive, the zone along the Yellow River) to be developed. At present, it is important to exploit and build hydropower and nonferrous metal base with Lanzhou as the center, energy and chemical industry base with Shanxi Province as the center, and oil and sea base with Shandong Peninsula and the estuary as the main region. With the reopening of Eurasia Bridge and the construction of traffic lines, it is going to be a benefit to develop the economy of this area. The development in the economic zone along the Yellow River brings high requirement of flood control and harnessing of the Yellow River.