Impacts of Danjiangkou reservoir on sediment regime of the Hanjiang River

With population increase and economic growth, the development of water resources and hydropower resources of the Hanjiang River has been intensified by dam building, and consequently the sediment regime of the Hanjiang River has been altered to some extent. To assess dam-induced alterations in the sediment regime of the Hanjiang River quantitatively, we selected three key hydrological stations (Baihe, Huangzhuang and Xiantao) as case study sites above and below the Danjiangkou reservoir respectively, and the whole study period was divided into two sub-periods according to the year when the reservoir started to store water. On the basis of time series of daily sediment data from the three stations, the alterations in their annual, seasonal, monthly and daily sediment load, and the relationships between water quantity and sediment load in different sub-periods were investigated, and the driving forces for the alterations were also explored. The output of this paper could provide reference for the assessment of the impacts of human activities on the long-term health and stability of the Hanjiang River ecosystem.