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Human–Environment
Interaction
Main Ideas
• The Chinese are building the
Three Gorges Dam to control
flooding.
• The Japanese have developed
creative ways to use their
limited amounts of land.
Places & Terms
Three Gorges Dam
A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE Hundreds of thousands of Chinese died in
PCBs
floods in the 20th century. Most of these deaths were caused by the flooding of the Chang Jiang and the Huang He rivers. These vast river floodplains are home to, and help feed, hundreds of millions of people, and
this makes people vulnerable to the rivers’ wrath. In addition to the many
deaths, the flooding has also forced millions of people to abandon their
homes. You will read more about one such flood in Chapter 28 (pages
640–641). But since the early 1990s, the Chinese have been building an
enormous new dam on the Chang Jiang that will help to control flooding.
This is one example of how East Asians have shaped their environment.
landfill
Connect to the Issues
physical forces One
reason why the Three Gorges
Dam is being built is to control
flooding of the Chang Jiang.
The Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is being built on the Chang Jiang in China. The
dam will, in part, help to control flooding along the great river, the third
longest in the world after the Nile and the Amazon. But the dam is also
expected to generate power and to allow ships to sail farther into China.
Building the Three Gorges Dam
The picture at right, below, shows the city of Fengdu and its
suspension bridge. The picture at far right, enhanced by computer
imaging, shows how the rising water created by the Three Gorges
Dam will cover all of Fengdu except for a few hilltops. The city’s
population of 65,000 will be moved to a new location.
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628 CHAPTER 27
Yichang
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Qutang
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Three Gorges Dam
Xiling Gorge
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AN ENGINEERING FEAT The Three Gorges Dam is China’s largest construction project and will be the world’s biggest dam. When completed,
the dam will tower more than 600 feet high and will span a valley more
than one mile wide. This dam will create a reservoir nearly 400 miles
long. At least 1,000 towns and villages will disappear under the waters
of the reservoir when the dam is completed.
POSITIVE EFFECTS The building of the Three Gorges Dam is a com-
• Lives lost to flooding: about one
million deaths in 20th century
• Location of dam: about 1,500
miles from the ocean
• Many hundreds of miles from
headwaters in western
mountains of China
0
SOURCES: Encyclopaedia Britannica; Infoplease.com
Human–Environment Interaction 629
EAST ASIA
Churchill Falls, Canada
LaGrande 2, Canada
Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Corpus-Posadas, Argentina and Paraguay
5,000
Sayano-Shushensk, Russia
10,000
Tucuruii, Brazil
15,000
Guri, Venezuela
20,000
Grand Coulee, United States
• Length of river: 3,964 miles
• Length of reservoir: 370 miles
• Height of dam: 610 feet
• Width of dam: 1.3 miles
• Number of turbines: 26,
generating 18,200 megawatts
of electricity
Electric Generating Capacity of World’s Largest Dams
Itaipu, Brazil and Paraguay
Facts and Figures
Three Gorges, China
Seeing Patterns
What are three
benefits of building the dam?
megawatts
A. Answer
control flooding;
generate electrical
power; improve
shipping
plicated issue because it will have both positive and negative effects.
Experts disagree about whether the dam should be built. But the
Chinese government, which began construction of the dam in 1993,
argues that the dam will have three positive effects.
First, the dam will help control the frequent flooding of the Chang
Jiang, which causes great damage and loss of life. This is critical because
the Chang Jiang irrigates about half of China’s crops. Also, the river
drains about one-fifth of China’s total land area.
Second, the dam will generate huge amounts of electrical power.
Giant turbines will produce electricity that will be hooked up to electrical grids in central and eastern China. This will improve the reliability
of electricity throughout China. By some estimates, the dam’s turbines
will produce about 10 percent of China’s electrical power. (See the bar
chart below for a comparison of the projected generating capacity of
the Three Gorges Dam with other large dams.)
Finally, the dam will make it easier for ships to reach China’s interior.
A series of locks along the river will raise ocean-going ships up from the
river to the reservoir. The Chang Jiang carries more than half of the
goods moving on China’s interior waterways. The dam and the locks
will increase shipping capacity and decrease shipping costs.
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HUMAN–
ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION The
river dolphin, the white
crane, and the alligator
are just three of the
species endangered by
the construction of the
Three Gorges Dam.
Why might the dam
be a threat to
various species?
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NEGATIVE EFFECTS Most observers agree that the
Three Gorges Dam will also have negative effects. The
central issue is whether the negative impact on the
environment will be greater than the positive benefits.
First, the human costs of the dam will be enormous.
Huge numbers of people will have to be moved—
somewhere between one million and two million
people. Also, hundreds of historical sites and scenic
spots will be submerged.
Second, the dam is likely to cost more money than
originally anticipated. The Chinese government first
estimated the cost at approximately $11 billion dollars.
However, other estimates now place the cost closer to
$75 billion. A number of banks and other financial institutions have chosen not to participate in the financing
of the dam because of their concerns about the cost.
Third, environmental concerns about the dam trouble many observers. The giant reservoir created by the
dam will put hundreds of square miles of land under
water. This will reduce the habitat of many animals. It
is feared that abandoned factories submerged under the
reservoir may leak contaminating chemicals into the
water. The huge reservoir will affect the climate and
temperature of the region as well as the plant and animal life. Such species as the alligator, leopard, sturgeon,
white crane, and river dolphin may not survive.
The Three Gorges Dam is scheduled to be completed in 2009.
However, the Chinese government has not been careful in protecting
the environment from the consequences of building the dam. Some
international groups are reluctant to invest in the project because of
environmental concerns, and this might delay its completion.
Use of Space in Urban Japan
Throughout history, the geographic challenges facing Japan have been
different from those facing China. One of the most important challenges is that Japan is made up of a series of mountainous islands. Most
of the cities are on the coasts of these islands. But because of nearby
mountains, many of the cities cannot expand to absorb any more of the
Japanese population, which is about 127 million people. Tokyo is a good
example. One of the world’s largest cities, it holds more than 25 million
people. There is, however, no more land for the city to grow.
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B. Answer These
include displaced
people, high cost,
and environmental
destruction.
Seeing Patterns
What might be
some negative
effects of the
dam?
C. Answer Most
of the interior
portions of the
Japanese islands
are mountainous.
CROWDED LIVING AND WORKING SPACES More than 60 percent of
the Japanese people live on only about three percent of the land. The
population is clustered along the narrow flat coastal plains.
These plains are among the most densely populated areas in the
world. The largest cities in Japan are Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya,
and Sapporo. Close to 80 percent of the people in Japan live in cities.
Partly because of their large populations, some Japanese cities have
become very polluted. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, a number
630 CHAPTER 27
Using the Atlas
Use the map
on page 615.
Why might the
Japanese people
live on such a
small percentage
of coastal land?
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of Japanese cities experienced poisoning from mercury and PCBs—
industrial pollutants that build up in animal tissue and can cause
disease and birth defects. PCBs were banned in 1977. However, cars and
factories still cause massive levels
of air and noise pollution.
ADAPTING TO LIMITED SPACE
The Japanese have shown great
ingenuity in adapting to limited
space. Because of the cost of land, Image not available for use on CD-ROM.
houses are small by American Please refer to the image in the textbook.
standards. The rooms are separated by sliding screens and are
sparsely furnished. People sleep on
thin mattresses called futons that
can be rolled up and stored during
the day.
Many people, especially in the
biggest cities, live in apartments. It is not uncommon for a family of four
to live in a one-bedroom apartment. Some Japanese attempt to escape the
overcrowding by moving away from the city to distant suburbs, but they HUMANENVIRONMENT
must commute for two or even three hours a day to and from work.
One of the solutions to the shortage of space is landfill. Landfill is a INTERACTION
Capsule hotels in
method of solid waste disposal in which refuse is buried between layers Japan provide tiny
of dirt to fill in or reclaim low-lying ground. The Japanese have used rooms for overnight
landfill to reclaim land for most of the major cities along the coast. guests.
Tokyo, for example, has built factories and refineries on landfill sites.
One result of the use of landfill sites has been to enlarge some of Japan’s
ports. These reclaimed areas are designed to handle the great number
of ships that sail in and out of the port.
You will explore more about how East Asians live in the next chapter,
on human geography.
Identify and explain
the significance of
each in the region.
• Three Gorges Dam
• PCBs
• landfill
Taking Notes
HUMAN–ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION Review the notes
you took for this section.
Human-Environment
Interaction
• Which of the examples in this
chapter illustrate human
adaptation to the environment?
Main Ideas
Geographic Thinking
a. What might be a positive
effect of the Three Gorges
Dam?
b. What might be a negative
effect of the Three Gorges
Dam?
c. Why are most of Japan’s
large cities located along
its coast?
Determining Cause and
Effect What were some of
the reasons that led to the
building of the Three Gorges
Dam? Think about:
• the effects of living near an
unpredictable river
• Which examples illustrate an
environment changed by humans?
RESEARCH LINKS
CL ASSZONE .COM
ASKING GEOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS Pair with a partner and research a dam in the United States
to compare with the Three Gorges Dam. Devise three geographic questions about the dams, such
as “How much concrete was used in the construction of the dams?” Then make a chart or graph
in which you provide data to answer the questions. Be sure to identify your sources.
Human–Environment Interaction 631
EAST ASIA
Places & Terms