Reservoir operation schemes for water pollution accidents in Yangtze River

After the Three Gorges Reservoir starts running, it can not only take into consideration the interest of departments such as flood control, power generation, water supply, and shipping, but also reduce or eliminate the adverse effects of pollutants by discharge regulation. The evolution of pollutant plumes under different operation schemes of the Three Gorges Reservoir and three kinds of pollutant discharge types were calculated with the MIKE 21 AD software. The feasibility and effectiveness of the reservoir emergency operation when pollution accidents occur were investigated. The results indicate that the emergency operation produces significant effects on the instantaneous discharge type with lesser effects on the constant discharge type, the impact time is shortened, and the concentration of pollutant is reduced. Meanwhile, the results show that the larger the discharge is and the shorter the operation duration is, the more favorable the result is.