Poyang Lake, "Water" and struggle for Front
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The rainy season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River this year is particularly long and menacing.
Since June 2, the Central Meteorological Observatory's rainstorm warning has been issued for more than 40 days, the longest since the rainstorm warning service was launched in 2007.
As the top priority of flood control task, Poyang Lake has gathered the attention of countless people.
01 30-day crisis
Since July, the situation of flood control has become increasingly serious. On July 11, the emergency response of disaster relief in Jiangxi was adjusted to level I.
The heavy precipitation led to a sharp rise in the water level of Poyang Lake, and the water level at some monitoring points has exceeded the value in 1998. Now that the torrential rain is gradually abating, as of July 22, there are still four stations around Poyang Lake where the water level exceeds the warning water level by more than 2 meters.
Comparison of January precipitation in the Yangtze River Basin with the same period in history | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
The flood season of Poyang Lake is longer than that in summer. During this period, the lake surface area can reach more than 3000km2, but it is generally lower than 1000km2 in winter.
Comparison of satellite images of Poyang Lake in May and July | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
The growth and decline of the year 02 and 1000
This is not the first time Poyang Lake has been at a critical juncture. For this land, it has been in the shadow of flood since it was born.
Poyang Lake, originally called Peng Lize, is just a narrow section of water on the banks of the Yangtze River. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the climate was warm, the rainfall was abundant, and the runoff of the Yangtze River increased. At this time, Yunmengze in Jianghan Plain has basically disappeared, and Peng Li Guze in the north of the Yangtze River has been replaced by Lei Chi.
From the late Tang Dynasty to the early Northern Song Dynasty, the lake expanded southward, which roughly established the shape of Poyang Lake today. Until the Qing Dynasty, Poyang Lake was in a state of expansion and was the largest freshwater lake in China.
Historical Evolution of Poyang Lake | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
The first historical record of the flood in Poyang Lake was in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, AD 381. Since then, floods have been recorded in historical books. The closer it is to the present, the more detailed the record is.
The number of years of large floods in Poyang Lake region in the 20th century | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
Jiangxi is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and mountains and hills account for 70% of the province's land area. The Poyang Lake Plain in the north is like an opening for internal rivers to be dumped.
The five rivers of Ganjiang, Fuhe, Xinjiang, Raohe and Xiushui converge here, and then flow into the Yangtze River from Poyang Lake.
Poyang Lake and Wushui Watershed area | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
Here belongs to the subtropical monsoon climate, the summer monsoon brings abundant precipitation, creating the flood season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In addition, human activities are also a major reason for the high incidence of floods here.
The reclamation of Poyang Lake began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the population of Poyang Lake increased sharply, and Jiangxi became the main area of grain export in the country. Yao he, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, once wrote: "the victories in Poyang are difficult to compare, and thousands of miles are rice beds." Today, the total agricultural output value of districts and cities in the Poyang Lake region accounts for 64% of the 11 cities in the province.
Grain production has increased, but a large amount of reclaimed farmland has occupied the flood storage space of the lake, thus increasing the risk of flooding in the lake area.
Since 1940, the number of lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has disappeared as a result of reclamation, and the number of lakes connected to the Yangtze River has decreased from 1000 to 2, that is, Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake, which are well known by the public.
03 70 years of turning the tide
Where there is a disaster, there will be people to save themselves. In order to ensure the safety of agricultural production, since ancient times, people have built dikes, planted willows and built wetlands in this lake area. However, due to historical conditions, their flood control capacity is limited, and it can even be said that they have become "accomplices" of the flood.
Distribution of some levees in Poyang Lake region since 1949 | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
According to the Records of Water Conservancy of Jiangxi Province, in 1948, the Gandong Embankment could only withstand the water level of 30.17 meters at Zhangshu Station, which was lower than the standard of flood water level of 31.92 meters once every two years. By the 1980s, the Gandong levee had reached the standard of withstanding the once-in-a-decade flood. The warning water level at Zhangshu station reached 33 meters. Since then, defense standards have been further raised.
In 1954, the flood control capacity of the dikes in the lake area was mostly about 19.5 meters at the mouth of the lake, but the highest water level in that year reached 21.68 meters, resulting in a major flood. After the 1998 flood, the highest water level in the mouth of the lake reached 22.59 meters, but the area of submerged land was much smaller than that in 1954.
Flooded area of Poyang Lake at the time of flood | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
The actual flood control capacity of Poyang Lake area is improving as a whole.
After 1998, the central government put forward the 32-word policy of "closing mountains and planting trees, returning farmland to forests, leveling embankments for flood discharge, returning farmland to lakes, providing relief for work, building towns, strengthening dikes, and dredging rivers and lakes." the flood storage capacity and area of Poyang Lake have been restored to some extent.
Change of reclaimed area of Poyang Lake since 1954 | Mapping @ Monologue/ Visualization Planet
The flood will recede and Poyang Lake will calm down. In the future, the confrontation between man and nature will always exist. It is not necessary to "fight to the death" between the two. Win-win with the ecological environment is the eternal pursuit of human beings.
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