Ecological Assessment And Impact Prediction On The Impacted Area Of Jinping Hydroelectric Project Of The Yalong River

The Jinping hydroelectric power station, located between from Kala to the outlet of the Yalong River, is designed as the first huge project of the river, which is rich in hydro logical energy. Impacts of the project on vegetation, soil, and patterns of land use will influence the regional ecosystem. Large area of cultivated lands, forests, shrubs, and other natural communities will be submerged when the project is built, which will inevitably result in loss of species diversity of plants and animals and their habitats. Furthermore, climate may be changing because making of large area of water due to building of the dam. The ecological assessment aims at determining the types, range, and intensity of impacts of this project based on characteristics and distribution of biodiversity on this area.By field work, and visiting local inhabitants and referencing the past data, we obtain information on flora, fauna, ecosystems and landscape systems of this area. Both Gleason-index and G-F index of species diversity are used to quantify biodiversity; Data obtained based on Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to calculate the area and number ofpatches of various categories so as to ecologically evaluate changes of thelandscapes. Prediction of impacts of the project is given by the methods of GIS and landscape ecology. The purpose of this study is to experimentally apply of some important concepts and methods of ecosystem ecology and landscape ecology to ecological assessment of large hydrological projects.The results of our study show that 1) Species diversity of plants is much higher than that of animals.Species diversity of shrubs is higher than that of trees. Among animals, species of birds is the highest, then that of mammals, that of amphibians and reptiles is the lowest. Impacts on plants will occur after the beginning of construction. 2) Impacts on animals, especially amphibians, are during construction and operation of the project. And the influence on amphibians is the biggest. 3) Because of higher resistant and resilient stability of this landscape system, ecosystems may restore gradually from disturbance due to construction.