Changjiang (Yangtze) is the largest river in PR China as well as one of the biggest in the world. There are abundant rainfalls with uneven distribution in space and time. Floods are mainly produced from April to October by storm rains. Flooding disasters have been frequent.
The Changjiang Flood Forecasting Assistance Project started on August 1^st 2003, aims to enhance the flood-forecasting standard for the middle part of Changjiang River by mean of distributed hydrological modelling and by flood monitoring through analysis of NOAH/AVHRR images. The project is assisted by the Swiss government through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and by the Changjiang Water Resources Commission (CWRC). A know-how and technology transfer from the Swiss partners to CWRC collaborators was completed. This includes training of CWRC staff in GIS, remote sensing and hydrological modelling as well as the installation of a satellite receiving station together with the required computer hardware and image processing and GIS software at CWRC in Wuhan (PRC).
An operational spatially distributed flood forecasting model for the contributing area of the Three Gorges Dam has to be developed and is installed. The catchment of the Daning River (approx. 2000 km2) served as experimental basin. The forecasting system includes the online acquisition of remotely sensed data of the contributing area of the reservoir in the upstream part of the Three Gorges Dam for the management of flood situations and the parallel operation of a real-time spatially distributed flood forecasting model.
This paper will give an overview on the implementation plan up to the end of March 2005 with special focus on the structure, functionality, parameterization and calibration of the distributed hydrological model in the Daning River for the periods 1990-1997 and 2000-2002. After implementation of the forecast system for the Daning River and training of the CWRC collaborators, the CWRC will be able to extend the application of the system for total directly contributing area of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir.