A study for ancient environments of the Chang Jiang- Environmental change of Dongting

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Recently, the bed of Dongting Hu (Lake), which is located in the middle reaches of the Chang Jiang in China, has been rising rapidly by a great deal of soil incursion from both the main and tributary streams, and the size of the lake reduces rapidly as a result. This phenomenon becomes a serious environmental problem in China because it causes a frequent flood in the middle to lower basin of the Chang Jiang.
According to historical data of Dongting Hu, the shape of the lake has changed greatly repeating expansion and reduction. It is proved that the area of the lake became the largest in the periods of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing kingdom, and it reached to about 6000 square km. Since then, the lake has been reducing and it became small to 2,600 square km in 1995. These are Landsat images acquired in 1979 and 1999, they clearly show the recent change of Dongting Hu.

December,1979 LANDSAT/MSS

December,1999 LANDSAT/ETM+

Environment Change of Dongting Hu
©TRIC/ESTO