It is known there is only one Yellow River in China since
antiquity. But the country is going to build three Yellow Rivers,
one original, one model and one digital. The Three Yellow River
Project will promote the modernization of the Yellow River's
development and management so that in the future its embankment
will not collapse, its water flow will not be interrupted, its
riverbed will not rise and its water quality will reach the
standard.
According to Li Guoying, director of the Yellow River Water
Conservancy Committee, the digital Yellow River and the model
Yellow River will be built to serve the water conservancy programs
of the real Yellow River. Information collected through high
technologies, including GPS, geographic information system and
satellite remote control will be transmitted to the computer
through optical fibers, microwaves and satellites. Based on its
analysis of the data, the computer will work out a plan for the
river's water conservancy projects. Then, the deign will be
practiced on the model Yellow River before it is actually carried
out on the real river.
Speaking at the National Water Conservancy Conference attended by
directors of relevant government departments recently, Li said the
research on the original Yellow River will provide various
information and physical parameters to the development and
management of the Yellow River. The interaction of the "three
Yellow Rivers" will insure development plans for the Yellow River
to be advanced, economic, rational, safe and efficient. The digital
river-control system will help obtain an integral and systematic
knowledge about the Yellow River and promote researches on the
river. It will greatly raise the efficiency of decision-making and
avoid faulty decisions.
Currently, the first stage of the project -- the water-quantity
control system of the digital Yellow River has been finished. The
water diversion gates in the lower reaches of the Yellow River are
now controlled at four levels of authorities, from the Yellow River
Conservancy Committee to relevant departments in each province, at
the city and county level, and the sites. The general dispatch
center of the Yellow River Conservancy Committee is able to conduct
remote control on the culvert and sluice gates of the Yellow River
1,000 km away. The first digital hydrological station and two
automatic high sand water-quality monitoring stations have been set
up and put into operation. The design of the model Yellow River has
been completed and construction will start soon.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, January 18, 2003)