Research on Fluvial Processes of the Wuhan Reach of Yangtze River after the Operation of Three Gorges Project

After the completion of the Three Gorges Project, conditions for incoming water and sediment of the Yangtze river channel downstream from the Three Gorges reservoir will change, the sediment transport capacity of the river channel will be in an unsaturated state, and riverbed scouring will take place along the river channel, which may bring about adjustment of the Wuhan river regime and have some influence on the flood control. Based on the new research of 1D flow and sediment mathematic model, through computation by mathematic models and analysis of observed data, preliminary researches were conducted on the variation of water and sediment on the evolution of the river channel erosion and deposit in the Wuhan river regime after the Three Gorges project. The 50-year operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir brings little impact on the river regime and thalweg of the WuHan reach. And double branch flow trend will be maintained in the Baishazhou braided river. However, the left branch of the Tian-xin bottomland continues to become weaker, with the right one growing. At last, according to the comprehensive utilization of the Yangtze River Basin Planning Report, it is a plan to block the Baishazhou right branch and maybe implement in recent years. Then, the effect and sediment problems related to the blocking of right branch of Baishazhou were studied in the paper.