Dynamics of land cover changes and carbon emissions driven by large dams in China

Liuyue He; Nishan Bhattarai; Yadu Pokhrel; Nan Jia; Peng Zhu; Guanqiong Ye; Zhenci Xu; Shaohua Wu; Zhongbin B Li

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109516

Dynamics of land cover changes and carbon emissions driven by large dams in China

iScience. 2024 Mar 18;27(4):109516. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109516. eCollection 2024 Apr 19.

Authors

Liuyue He^{1

2}, Nishan Bhattarai³, Yadu Pokhrel⁴, Nan Jia^{5

6}, Peng Zhu⁷, Guanqiong Ye², Zhenci Xu^{7

8}, Shaohua Wu⁹, Zhongbin B Li¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Donghai Laboratory, Zhoushan 316021, Zhejiang, China.
² Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316021, Zhejiang, China.
³ Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
⁵ Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, part of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
⁶ Environmental Science and Policy Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
⁷ Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
⁸ Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
⁹ Institute of Land and Urban-Rural Development, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China.
¹⁰ School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China.

Abstract

The recent surge in dam construction has sparked debates regarding their contribution to carbon neutrality and food security, focusing on trade-offs between production benefits and ecological drawbacks. However, how dams affect carbon emissions and land cover changes, including their spatial differentiations, remains unclear. We quantified spatiotemporal variations in carbon emissions and storage of 137 large dams in China from 1992 to 2020, resulting from land cover change in potentially affected areas. We observed a lesser increase in carbon emissions and a more pronounced increase in carbon storage driven by forest conservation and regeneration within dam-affected areas compared to unaffected areas. Additionally, we noticed an increased grain yield in nearby areas potentially due to increased water availability. Our findings highlight the importance of considering land cover change when assessing carbon neutrality or grain yield at regional and national scales. This study provides useful insights into optimizing dam locations to mitigate future carbon emissions effectively.

Keywords: Agricultural land; Biogeoscience; Hydrology; Land use.