Water & Energy
How much energy is produced each year by the 3 Gorges Dam?
What is 22,500 Megawatts?
This river is home to the 3 Gorges Dam and its basin provides half of the country’s fish and two thirds of its rice.
What is the Yangtze River?
Which is higher, indirect or direct agricultural energy use?
What is direct?
The dam impacts water availability, which ties into this concept where water use for one purpose (like hydropower) can affect availability for others (like agriculture or municipal use).
What is water allocation trade-off?
How might large water allocations for irrigation benefit farmers?
Increased income by due to improved crop production and lower expenses
156,000 Acres of this type of land was lost to the dam’s rising reservoir? To replace it, China had to expand into these often fragile, less fertile regions
What is farmland? What are mountainous (or marginal) regions?
Building and operating large hydro projects like the Three Gorges Dam illustrates this paradox: using water to generate energy, which in turn is used to manage more water.
What is the energy-water feedback loop?
Large dams like the Three Gorges can affect this key input for farming by changing river sediment flow downstream.
What is soil fertility?
Electricity from the dam powers rural development, reducing the need for this fuel source traditionally used for cooking in rural Chinese households.
What is biomass (or wood/animal dung)?