Three Gorges Project: a project for ecological improvement and environmental protection in Yangtze River Basin

Seeking water and earning their livelihoods is the natural selection of human beings. Like other rivers on the earth, the Yangtze River is the birthplace of human civilization and survival. As an ecosystem, the Yangtze River Basin is evolving under the influences of natural factors and human activities. Because of soil erosion, pollution and human activities, the imbalance of secondary environment is exacerbated and the ecological environment has become more vulnerable, so it is urgent to mitigate and prevent the ecological crisis. The practice has proved that implementation of engineering measures is an effective way to improve the ecological environment. The Three Gorges Project (TGP) has a flood control storage capacity of 22.15 billion m3, effectively storing the flood water upstream of Yichang, and protects 15 million people and 1.5 million hm2 farmland. Furthermore, the project can prevent or slow down the sedimentation and shrinkage of the lakes in the middle Yangtze River such as Dongting Lake; with an average annual power generation of about 90 billion kW·h, it can significantly reduce the emissions of harmful gas like CO2. In general, the construction of TGP is conducive to the ecological and environmental protection in the Yangtze River Basin and China, even the world.