Sediment studies and management strategies in China

Abstract

Sediment management is always most challenging in the hydraulic engineering on sediment‐laden rivers. Chinese people have accumulated abundant experiences in solving the problems like watershed erosion, heavily sediment‐laden rivers, reservoir sedimentation, estuarine and coastal sedimentation, and debris flows and control strategies. This paper summarizes the sediment issues, research approaches and management strategies. The paper outlines a vision for the future sediment research in the new century, especially reporting on an ambitious plan of validation of sediment studies performed for the Three Gorges Project. The need for multidisciplinary approaches to conducting research is also discussed.

Keywords:

• Soil erosion
• heavily sediment‐laden rivers
• Three Gorges Project
• debris flows
• river training and management