Hydrological records collected from water gauge stations since the 1950s demonstrate that the Taihu lake level is rising. The average rate of the lake-level rise is 0.4–1.1 mm/year during the non-flood season, resulting directly from a rise in sea level. High rates of 3.0–5.0 mm/year of rise are even recorded during the wet season. This indicates increasing human activities such as reclamation, sluicing and embanking, which significantly hinder the expulsion of extra lake water to the coast shortly after a rainfall. Generally, the lake level of the western inlet is higher than that of the eastern outlet. However, the lake-level difference between the west and east has been diminished annually from ∼10–15 cm in the 1950s to <3 cm at the present time. During non-flood seasons, the lake-level difference even appears to be reversed, indicating a retrogression of the lake flow from east to west. It is predicted that the Taihu drainage basin will lose much of its natural water-expelling ability in the next 50 years as the sea level continues to rise, and retrogression will likely occur during the flood season in the near future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this article Subscribe and saveSpringer+ Basic
€34.99 /Month
Price includes VAT (Germany)
Instant access to the full article PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others Explore related subjectsDiscover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning. Author information Authors and AffiliationsState Key Estuarine Laboratory, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China e-mail: z.chen@gislab.ecnu.edu.cn, , , , , , CN
Z. Y. Chen
Department of Geography, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China, , , , , , CN
Z. H. Wang
Received: 13 March 1998 · Accepted: 21 July 1998
About this article Cite this articleChen, Z., Wang, Z. Yangtze Delta, China: Taihu lake-level variation since the 1950s, response to sea-level rise and human impact. Environmental Geology 37, 333–339 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002540050392
Issue Date: April 1999
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002540050392
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4