Dam/dijk Building Case in China

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GEOGRAPHY

China is located in the southeast of Asia. And China is the world’s third largest Country with an area of 9.6million square kilometers and a coastline of 18,000 kilometers. In the west of China is full of mountains, in the east of China are the low-lying valleys and plains, and in the northeast are basins. (Briney, 2011) The population distribution is not even due to its geography: the East is densely whereas the West is sparsely populated. The province in the northeast such as Shandong has around 90million people, however the autonomous region such as Tibet Autonomous Region has less than 3million people. (National Geography Community, 2014) The facts indicate that the area with more population will consume more energy than the area with less population. In this case, the transfer the hydra energy from the west to the east that mentioned before is here again necessary for China’s sustainable development.

China is bounded by rich water resources like rivers and lakes. These rivers flow though the nearly two-thirds of China areas from east and south continent to west oceans. Around over 1,000 square kilometers area was covered with more than 1,500 rivers. (China.org, 2014) There are several rivers in China (e.g. Yangtze River, Yellow River, Amur River, Salween River, Brahmaputra River and etc.) that have great significance for China’s sustainable development, for instance the hydropower station that could provide energies.

The following rivers will be discussed specifically due to future potential dam building projects.

- Yangtze River Basin

Yangtze River all known is the largest river in China. From its source the Tanggula Mountain chain in Tibet to the East Sea. Yangtze River flows 6,300 kilometers thought 11 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (China.org, 2014) which include the major cities like Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai. Such length of the Yangtze River offers a great opportunity to build multiple dams along its basin.

Based on the proposed future projects mentioned before, the Zhuyangxi Dam and Xiaonanhai Dam are located in Chongqing City. (RPOBE International, 2006) Chongqing is located on the edge of the Yungui Pleateau, which connects the middle and western parts of China. It contains mountains like Wu Shan, Daba Shan, Wuling Shan etc. (Unknown, 2008) The large numbers of mountain lies in Chongqing give the difficulties of transporting the raw materials. Also it creates dangers if landslide happens. The safety of the working condition needs to be considered primarily.

- Brahmaputra River

Brahmaputra River is also known as Yarlung Tsangpo River in China. The source of Brahmaputra River is in the Himalayas, in Tibet. It flows across the south of Tibet through the Gorges of Himalaya mountain range to India with the total length of around 2,900 kilometers. (IndiaNetZone, 2009) In Tibet, Three-quarters of the land are situated at more than 3.500 meters of altitude. (IHASSA, 2014) Due to the high altitude, the working condition of constructing dams will be hard. The oxygen is sparse in Tibetan plateau; workers might face the altitude problems. However, the bottled oxygen would be helpful under this kind of circumstance.

- Salween River

The Salween River is also known as Nu River in China. It has an approximate length of 2400km and is shared by China, Thailand, and Burma. The 53% of the watershed area is located in China. (Salween Watch, 2014)

Salween River is also located in Tibetan plateau; there will be the same altitude problems as the dam constructions in Brahmaputra River.

Since China has already proposed dam building projects long its basin, it was disputable due to its geographical location. Burma and Thailand, which their communities living downstream of Salween River, have strong disagree voice of dam construction projects in China because it will harm the ecological environment and affects the livelihood of these communities. (InternationalRivers Org, 2014)

INFRASTRUCTURE

China’s government always considers the infrastructure development as a priority task because of the recognition of that a modern economy relies on solid roads and rails, electricity, and telecommunications. (Chen, Matzinger, & Woetzel, 2013) The Chinese government has already targeted its 12th Five Year Plan on sustainable growth by making efficient use of the resources, motivating the internal demand, increasing the speed of urbanization. (Atkins, 2013) The coastal cities in southeast China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are thriving, however the cities in southwest are not well developed; in this case, the Chinese government will focus on the development of the western cities (e.g. Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, Tibet and etc.) in next 5 to 10 years in its “Great Western Development Strategy”. (Atkins, 2013) These facts show that China will put huge efforts in developing the western areas of China, and it will encourage the proposed dam building cases to be passed.

The Following areas’ infrastructure will be discussed in detail due to the potential future projects for the dam building case.

- Yangtze River Basin

The Yangtze River Delta[6] has highly developed infrastructures comparing with other regions of the Yangtze River Basin due to the reason of frequent import and export trades. (China Briefing, 2008) Yichang city[7], where Three Gorges Dam and Gezhou Dam[8] are located, is the important railway-river transshipment hub for coal. And it is also a site of an international railway container transport terminal along the Yangtze River. (China Briefing, 2008)

The facts show that the infrastructure in those cities in the Yangtze River Basin is well developed. It gives the benefits of transporting row material for building dams.

- Tibet Autonomous Region

China has developed the first rank infrastructure on Tibetan plateau such as highways, rail links, airports, logistics installations, and etc. (Arya, 2011) The trail network in Tibet Autonomous Region up to Xigaze city[9] which located close to India border, which is the extension line of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway[10] linking Lhasa to Xigaze, would be finished at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. (ZeeNews, 2013) In order to help the development of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China has widely developed road, rail, and air infrastructure to connect distant