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THE QUANTITATIVE FEATURES OF CHINA'S WATER RESOURCES: AN OVERVIEW

China has a long history of hydrological development. According to
Chinese legends, famous projects of flood water diversion were developed by
the Great Yu as early as the year two thousand B.C. The earliest hydrological
record appeared in 256 B.C., when Mr. Lipin and his son constructed
the Dujiangyan irrigation system in the upper reach of the Mingjiang River
in Sichuan Province. At Baopingkao, the water intake point of the
Dujiangyan irrigation system, a water staff gage was carved on a stone for
the measurement of water levels. Although hydrological studies in China
started early, hydrology and water resources as modern sciences have been
developed only in the last several decades, particularly rapidly in the last
30 years. For instance, the number of hydrological stations has increased
45 times, from about 350 to more than 16,000. Of these, about 3300 stations
also take flow velocity measurements. The average density of the hydrological
stations is about one per 530 km2 and that of discharge measurement
stations about one in 3,000 km2. These stations are highly concentrated in
eastern China. The longest records of precipitation are maintained in the
large cities in eastern China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjing.
Beijing has 140 years of precipitation records. The Hankao hydrological
station on the Changjiang (Yangtze) River has the longest discharge record
spanning 117 years (1865- 1982).

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/614161
Date02 1900
CreatorsChangming, Liu
ContributorsDepartment of Hydrology & Water Resources, The University of Arizona
PublisherDepartment of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Technical Report
SourceProvided by the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources.
RightsCopyright © Arizona Board of Regents
RelationTechnical Reports on Hydrology and Water Resources, No. 38

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