RELYING ON THE NORTH CHANNEL,CONSTRUCTING THE SUB-DELTA SYSTEM IN THE YANGTZE ESTUARY——ON STRATEGIC VISION OF THE NEW LEADING BASE OF THE YANGTZE RIVER BASIN

Currently,it is the best time to develope the Yangtze River Estuary.With the conduct of the Yangtze Estuary Deepwater Channel Regulation Project and the Yangtze Estuary passage across the river being opened to traffic,the time is ripe for us to build super-deep water berths and super-deep water channel.If we build a man-made island on the base of deep-water channel of 15m at the Outer Zone of the Yangtze Estuary,deep-water channel of 20m would be reached and deep-water Grand Port could be built which would become the bridgehead of land-and-sea coordinated transport in the Yangtze River Basin.Correspondently,large amount of sediment created by the Yangtze Estuary Deepwater Channel Regulation Project will create favorable conditions for accelerating the Hengsha eastern tidal flat and its surrounding sandbars into land.By the trinity of dredging,accelerative silting and the land reclamation,it is estimated to form the island groups over 500 square kilometers and shape the sub-delta system between the South Port and the North Port in the Yangtze River Estuary,and on both sides of the main channel in the north channel in the next 20 years.