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Influence of the Three Gorges Reservoir on climate drought in the Yangtze River Basin

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Abstract

Although El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been widely confirmed to have significant impacts on climate change in Asia, it is unknown whether the climate change in the Yangtze River Basin (YTR basin) is related to the operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir, which is the world’s largest hydropower station. In this study, we used the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) as an indicator of climate change and found that the mutation period of the YTR basin was 2003–2006 based on three mutation tests. By analyzing the trends of the SPEI and five related meteorological factors before and after 2003, it was found that the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir increased the relative humidity and provided a more humid climate for the downstream basin. The relationships between drought events and ENSO and the water level of the reservoir indicated that the basin was more prone to drought in El Niño years and the Three Gorges Reservoir could alleviate agricultural drought in the downstream basin. The spatial impacts of the Three Gorges Reservoir on regional climate change were more pronounced, while the impact of ENSO could not be reflected at the station scale.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their thanks to the National Climate Centre of China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41971037).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Xue Li, Jian Sha & Zhong-Liang Wang

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  1. Xue Li
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  2. Jian Sha
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Contributions

Wang Zhong-liang designed the overall framework of the manuscript. Li Xue was responsible for data collection and analysis and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. Sha Jian completed the writing of the remaining manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhong-Liang Wang.

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Li, X., Sha, J. & Wang, ZL. Influence of the Three Gorges Reservoir on climate drought in the Yangtze River Basin. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 29755–29772 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12704-4

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