A study on the environmental geology of the Middle Route Project of the South-North water transfer

The Middle Route Project (MRP) of South to North water transfer is an important project which will ease the water shortage in the North China plain, as well as in the cities of Beijing and Tianjing. The project, which is ca. 1230 km long, will divert water from the Danjiangkou reservoir on the Hanjiang River, where a water surplus exists, into the water-deficient areas of the provinces of Henan and Hebei, which include Beijing and Tianjing. The annual diversion capacity of the region is 15 billion m(3). This project consists of the Danjiangkou dam, the canal headwork, the trunk canal and a large number of crossing structures. The project will be affected by several environmental geologic problems, mainly the slope stability of swelling clay and rock, soil salinization as a result of the rise of the ground water table caused by canal leakage, the settlement of the ground surface in the coal district, liquefaction of sand, drainage through the left bank of the canal and frozen heave problems. According to the environmental geology zoning, these problems can be solved with the application the latest technologies. The environmental geology of the MRP is good and has enormous potential for development. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.