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DSE Geog Essay 地理例子 | C2: Three Gorges Dam

Water storage project: The Three Gorges Project


Introduction

  • Started in 1997, finished in 2009

  • Mainly to generate electricity and to control flooding

  • Location: middle of China and on its longest river, the Yangtze

  • 185 m high and almost 2 km wide

  • The reservoir of water that has built up behind the dam is nearly 600 km long


Advantages:

  • The Three Gorges Dam has become a tourist attraction ‣ The dam produces clean renewable energy- HEP → account for 10% of China’s present demand for electricity

  • The amount of flooding has reduced downstream of the dam

  • Water is stored behind the dam that can be used for drinking, irrigation

  • The dam created a lot of jobs during building and there are now permanent jobs operating and maintaining the dam


Disadvantages:

  • Over 1 million people had to be relocated as the reservoir flooded

  • Cities, towns and villages have been drowned

  • The Yangtze freshwater dolphin has become extinct, mainly due to increased river traffic and pollution

  • The sturgeon and alligator are severely threatened because of pollution and disruption to breeding patterns

  • The dam is built near a fault line → vulnerable to earthquakes

  • Many archaeological sites were inundated

  • Silt is trapped behind the dam → farmland downstream of the dam become less fertile as less alluvium is deposited

  • Water quality is reducing as huge amounts of human and industrial waste are trapped behind the dam

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