Estuary Processes and Managment - River Dynamics and Integrated River Management - page 533

China, and is notable for the large amount of sediments it carries (around 1.4 billion tonnes to the sea
annually). The wetland in Yellow River Delta is the largest wetland newly created in China, with a rate of
32.4 km 2 per year (Yue et al., 2003). Historic material, field investigation and remote sensing data all
show that this vast neonatal wetland is attributable to its huge deposition of sand and mud transported by
the Yellow River (Fig. 8.77).
Fig. 8.77 The Yellow River Delta Wetland
Human activities may have a very strong influence on wetland forms. The Chongming Dongtan Nature
Reserve, China, located at the eastern end of the mouth of the Yangtze River, is a typical coastal wetland
whose form is strongly suffering from human activities. This wetland has been re-marked as a representative
wetland conservation zone by RAMSAR, because it is a staging and wintering site for millions of birds,
as well as a spawning and feeding ground for 63 species of fish, including the endangered Chinese Sturgeon.
Due to its extraordinary resources and its proximity to the city of Shanghai 45 km away, the site has become
an attractive destination for eco-tourism and land development. For satisfying the need for farmland,
fishponds, road systems and real estate, many parts of the new wetlands were reclaimed in a planned way
by the construction of water conservancy works such as spur dikes (Fig. 8.78). Such human activities have
severely changed the original wetland forms and ecosystems, forcing the sediment deposition to extend
seaward, which could be reflected by the historical traces of farmland expansion shown in Fig. 8.79.
Fig. 8.78 Spur dikes established for reclamation of wetlands in the Chongming Island, China