1st International Symposium on Larger Asian Rivers:
Fluvial-Coastal Zone Interactions
In the era of rapid environmental changes, large Asian river basins have seen dramatic intervention by humans such as land use/land cover alterations, reservoir and road construction, water diversion, sediment mining and channelisation. Some examples include Huanghe (Yellow River) and Changjiang (Yangtze River), two of the largest rivers in East Asia, which have experienced recent dramatic changes in water and sediment discharge. These changes in water discharge and sediment flux have detrimental effects on estuarine and coastal zones. As a result, many estuarine and coastal areas are suffering from freshwater shortage, seawater intrusion, sediment depletion, coastal erosion, wetland losses and wastewater pollution from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities. An effective means is required to predict how activities upstream impact the coastal zone. Therefore, research linking river basin development with the coastal zone is urgent.
This symposium provided an opportunity to exchange the latest research results in this field for worldwide academicians, scholars, engineers and decision makers. The attendees of this symposium had an opportunity to experience some of the changes of the Yangtze River estuary as a result of the closure of the Three Gorges Dam, the worldwide largest dam.
Themes of this symposium include, but not limited to:1) Effects of land cover/land use and climatic changes upper stream on water and sediment discharge to the seas, 2) Effects of reservoirs construction, water diversion and sediment mining on estuarine and coastal processes, 3) Effects of the upstream development on the ecological environment in the estuarine and coastal areas, 4) Water pollution in estuarine and coastal areas, salt water intrusion and mitigation, wetland and coastal protection.
This symposium was jointly organized by State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resource of Hohai University and National University of Singapore.
The Symposium was held on 9th -10th December, 2006 in Nanjing, China.
Links to previous sysmposium coverage:
https://hydro-lab.hhu.edu.cn/shownews1.asp?news_id=509
