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Drop by drop, China’s Yangtze River is drying up
- The levels of the massive waterway were long thought to be constant but researchers say they have calculated the scale of the decline
- The river’s ill health is due to various factors and has far-reaching consequences, experts say
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The biggest river in China is drying up.
After examining decades of records from ground stations and satellite images, government researchers estimate that the average level of the Yangtze River has fallen by about 2cm (0.8 inches) every five years since the 1980s.
Researchers warn that the overall decline of the waterway could have a great impact on the environment and economy of one of the richest, fastest-growing parts of the country.
In a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Advances in Water Science this month, Nie Ning and colleagues with the Ministry of Education’s Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science pin part of the blame on human activities such as changing landscape and dam construction.
“[But] climate change played a much bigger role than any other factors [in the decline],” they said.
03:17
China’s Yangtze fishing communities struggle amid 10-year fishing ban
China’s Yangtze fishing communities struggle amid 10-year fishing ban
Home to 460 million people, the Yangtze region encompasses the economic powerhouse of Shanghai and accounts for more than a third of China’s GDP.
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