Land and natural resources, ecological environments and prevention and control of disasters along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, western China

The Yangtze River in the upper reaches flows,from west to east,through Qinghai,Xizang,Sichuan,Yunnan,Chongqing and Hubei,and its tributaries stretch to the vast area of Gansu,Shaanxi and Guizhou over approximately 105.4×10⁴km²,11.1% of the total area of the whole country.
Economically,the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are less developed areas,where the gross domestic product (GDP) are relatively low.However these areas are famous for their abundant water and mineral resources plus a great variety of agricultural,forest and livestock products and thus may contribute to the economic development in the middle and lower reaches of the river.
At present,the rapid decrease in forest vegetation,poor water conservation and intense soil erosion result in frequent occurrence of the geological disasters such as debris flows,landslide,avalanche and collapse as well as droughts and flood disasters.The human activities such as the endless discharge and emission of waste water and gas give rise to the serious water and air pollution.These adverse ecological circumstances in the upper reaches have also exerted bad effects on the improvement of the ecological environments and sustainable development of the middle and lower reaches of the river.Therefore,it is highly necessary to call for a special law to enforce and regulate environmental conservation in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.It is imperative to carry out the new large-scale geological survey of land and natural resources and work out the schemes for the rational exploitation and utilization and conservation of natural resources;to establish measurement systems of water and air pollution aiming at reducing pollution sources;to establish the dynamic monitoring and early warning systems of crustal deformation in the key zones with the aid of high-tech for the purpose of the prevention and control of geological hazards;to built multistage water conservancy works in order to make full use of plenty of water resources in the upper reaches,and to exercise artificial tem poral and spatial control on groundwater so as to effectively eliminate droughts and floods.