Preview

Three Gorges Dam: World's Largest Dam

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1772 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Three Gorges Dam: World's Largest Dam
Three Gorges Dam
Introduction:
A computer simulated model of how the finished dam is supposed to look like
A computer simulated model of how the finished dam is supposed to look like
The three Gorges dam is the world’s largest dam with a total length of half a mile and 600 feet high. The construction of this massive dam took over 21 years starting from planning till the finished construction. The dam was built to stop the floorings that occurred and to cut down the greenhouse emissions of Chinas energy production. With t total production of 100 terawatt per year the dam provides 3% of Chinas total energy consume. But this dam had also been a disaster to the environment and the society. But the construction of the dam also had its negative sides, 1.3million people had to be relocated, many archeological artifacts were buried, the construction caused massive landslides, killed hundreds of fish species and changed the environment around it. But the biggest problem is the effect that it had on the water cycle. The three Gorges dam is one of the most discussed topics when talking about the water cycle.

Water storage:
The biggest problem with this project is the 39 trillion kilograms of water that are store on the side of the dam. This causes million kilos of water to evaporate each day. This causes major rain fall. The large amount of rain is causing minor flooding. These floods do not claim as many lives as the major floods but are still enough to destroy fields and to turn smaller cities into flood plain. The floorings cause the farmers to have large difficulties to find fertile land and so to grow their crops and. This is not a huge issuer since there are millions of farmers in china but it has an effect on the people that live near the dam and their income.

Deforestation:
The next problem is Chinas government is deforestation the area around the dam, with the trees cut down the rain, caused by the dam, and cannot be absorbed by the trees anymore. This



Bibliography: Three-dam74575.jpg. Digital image. 7 Dec. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012. <http://www.indiatalkies.com/2010/12/78000-tonnes-garbage-collected-gorges-dam.html>.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    7.05h World History

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Aswan Dam is situated across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. It is also known as the High Dam. The dam was constructed between 1960 and 1970, and had a significant impact on the economy and culture of Egypt.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elwha Dam Research Paper

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When the Elwha Dam was demolished it was the largest controlled sediment release in a dam removal project anywhere in the world. Because of the amount of sediment behind large dams like the Elwha, the demolition must be done gradually over time to ensure that there is not an overflow of sediment rushed down the river which could cause significant damage to the landscape and the organisms which inhabit it. At the time of the dam removal the Elwha was holding behind it 15,000,000 cubic yards of silt. Sediment buildup isn't the only thing that dams can change about the soil. Many geological occurrences have been blamed on dams.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grand Coulee Dam Analysis

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This documentary is narrated by a man named Ben Knight. He is a directed and cinematographer for many film. This film is about the importance and consequences in which dams will provide. Dams are very expensive, take years to build and they are also can be very deadly during the construction phase. However, the cost of removing a dam is just as expensive for tax payers and city legislatures. Dams do provide hydropower energy to generate mills and also provide water storage. Two of the most common dam are: Hoover Dam in Arizona and Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. The Elwha Dam is located in Washington and is the home of the Elwha River. Salmon habitats are a pride and joy in the Elwha River but in 1910 when construction began the habitats were destroyed.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What: it gave jobs to unemployed workers. 726 ft high and 1,244 feet long. World's tallest dam, and second largest dam. Provided electricity and flood control, and regular water supply.…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    SCI 207 Quiz

    • 1734 Words
    • 9 Pages

    China has been able to avoid major water shortages due to its construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which provides electricity and agricultural water throughout China.…

    • 1734 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Others could be said that it was just as detrimental as it was to help. It did provide jobs, electricity, and water, but the consequences that come with it werent as evident as they are now. The now corralled water has disrupted the natural state of flow and now has dropped in oxygen levels, that affect the livelihood within its depths. Also since the water is being regularly filtered, the water is no longer carrying sediment, so the water is actually more likely to erode the walls of the river faster and more likely. As well as the naturally carved paths that it once flowed will be no longer preserved by the water now that it is being manipulated by the precise distribution to the varying 7 states. With the water distribution organisms are being shifted to new habitats, that are endangering their survival because of the consistency of new life is being introduced to new habitats, that most aren't compatible with. It was considered to be a clean source, but is it? While local tourism and population and economic values are striving from the Hoover Dam, the actual waters are suffering and the site for the things we enjoy today.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the aftermath of Mao Zedong, China was viewed as a powerless and developing nation. In 2009, the Chinese executed the record-breaking world’s largest engineering and hydropower project on the Yangtze River.1 This 23 billion (US) dollar project is known as the Three Gorges Dam.2 The dam stands at 607 feet tall, stretches over a mile wide, and is equipped with twenty-six generators.3 Not only does this project symbolize China’s power, it provides China with ten percent of its electrical needs using eco-friendly energy.4 5 The massive dam was created on the longest river in China to generate power and control the flooding of the Yangtze River.6 Although the engineers intended for the project to be “green” or not harmful to the environment, biologists, geologists, and environmentalists have all been averse to the dam.7 The Three Gorges Dam is disturbing the ecosystem, biosphere and other natural elements in China. The Three Gorges Dam has been the cause of Earthquakes in China and Reservoir Induced Seismicity. The titanic dam is also responsible for damaging floods and severe tainting of the once clean waters of the Yangtze River.…

    • 2307 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The dam is very huge in size and supplies millions of people with a source of power. The Hoover Dam is tall as a 60 foot story building and holds an enormous size of water. For one purpose that out stood all other purposes of the dam was that the building of the dam symbolized America’s amazingly industry effort, limits, and workers of the 1930’s (“The Greatest Dam in the World,” 2011). The engineering ability inspired people. There are still visitors today of this 21st century to see the beautiful construction.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Haiti Earthquake

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The worst natural disaster in history, the central china floods occurred, from July to August in 1931, when the Yangtze River overflowed and caused a series of floods. As a result of the massive flooding, an estimated 3.7 million people died from drowning, disease and starvation. Over one-fourth of China’s population were affected by the floods. Wives and daughters were sold by desperate people, and in some cases that were reported, there was cases of infanticide ( the intentional killing of infant girls) and also cannibalism. The high water was reached on the 19th of August. The water level was over 53 ft. 200,000 people had drowned in their sleep. Since there wasn’t any money to spare because of the war, they were only able to put up small dams to keep the water at bay on the Yangtze River. When the civil war was over, the Chinese communist party started the Gorges Dam Flood Control project. Which did not successfully take off until the 1980’s and went full operation in 2012. Becoming the world’s largest power…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    * The building of The Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River has brought negative impacts and problems to the nearby residences that have been occupying the areas for generations. The documentary, Up In the Yangtze, reveals the life of one particular family that was extremely affected by the dam project. The population that is most negatively affected by the Three Gorges Dam is the residents and cities that have resided by the Yangtze River for a very long time. Like the protagonist, Cindy, and her family, many of them are peasant families living below the poverty line, uneducated, and use the river to farm. The dam has caused water level to increase in the Yangtze and…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dams, such as those in the Yangtze River, threaten the habitats of wildlife, reducing biodiversity and affecting food chains. China’s current environmental situation seems like an insurmountable problem for the foreseeable future, greatly affecting everyday…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    friendly electricity for these people. Once the dam is built the energy is virtually free meaning that if we sell the area to a company and they build the dam the electricity will cost very little or if we build it ourselves it will be free electricity for the people.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Johnstown Flood

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages

    You may be wondering how the dam burst in the first place. Well according to McCullough there were many factors. The dam itself had many internal flaws, like the fact that it sagged a bit in the very middle of the dam where it needed to be the strongest, it would not have been noticeable to the regular eye though. The dam was part of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, which was a prestigious summer, mountain club. It had members such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. The dam created a lake for the members of the club to go boating (which was very rare, especially in the mountains), but when the dam was being rebuilt for this club many things were overlooked. For example the fact that there was no way of controlling the amount of water it held, this meant that once they raised the level of the water there was no way to go back. There were also many small leaks that were overlooked, passed off as, “springs that came from near the ends of…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Hoover Dam

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Management of the dam’s construction was one of the largest undertakings in the world at that time. Indeed, you could even say of all time, since it has become one of the Seven Wonders of the Man-Made World.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Krasting, B. (2011). The Untold Story of A Venezuelan Dam That Failed, And A Look At What's Happening Now in China. Retrieved from…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics