Climatic control of upper Yangtze River flood hazard diminished by reservoir groups

Abstract

Over recent decades, concern has grown regarding the effects of climate change and artificial river projects on the variability of river floods. Specifically, it has been demonstrated that the Mississippi River flood hazard has been amplified by river engineering. In contrast, the world’s largest reservoir group with the Three Gorges Reservoir at its core has been built along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but the question of whether there has been a positive effect on flood control is worthy of discussion. Here, we revisit nine paleofloods from the ancient stone inscriptions for the first time and show that while annual peak discharge in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is dominated by sunspot numbers and the North Atlantic Oscillation, the magnitude of flooding has been decreased by the reservoir group, which diminished flood hazard through reversing or strengthening the direction of climate control on the flood.

Keywords

• climate control
• reservoir group
• annual peak discharge
• sunspot number
• North Atlantic Oscillation