【4K】黄河，你变了！为了治理黄河，我们经历了什么？
这是一份 163 人的签名，在上面你会看到水利学泰斗张光斗、地理学家施雅风、导弹控制专家梁思礼以及中国氢弹之父于敏等等，163 位来自各个学科各个领域的院士共同联名已经相当罕见，而他们之所以振臂疾呼只为了一件事：拯救黄河。
This,is a paper with 163 people's signatures on it, where you can see Zhang Guangdou, a leading scholar in water conservancy, Shi Yafeng, a geographer, Liang Sili, an expert in missile control, Yu Min, the father of China's hydrogen bomb and so on. For 163 academicians from various disciplines and fields to jointly sign their names is quite rare enough, and the reason why they raised their voice is only for one thing: to save the Yellow River.
这就是当时的黄河，今天的我们也许很难想象，在 1997 年时，黄河一年中有将近 2/3 的时间无水入海，最严重时，整个下游 90% 的河道完全干涸。是的，黄河断流了。
This was the Yellow River at that time. It may be difficult for us today to imagine that, back in 1997, the Yellow River had no water into the sea for nearly 2/3 of the year, while at its worst, 90% of the lower reaches almost completely dried up. Yes, The Yellow River cut off.
如果说一条河流的完全干涸标志着它的彻底死亡，那么断流就是它接近死亡的开始。难以相信这条奔流了百万年的大河、这条哺育了中华文明 5000 年的大河竟然如此接近死亡的边缘。可是，我们该如何拯救这条母亲河呢？20 多年后的今天，黄河的命运又真的安枕无忧了吗？
If the complete drying up of a river marks its ultimate death, then the flow cutoff means the beginning of its approach to death. It is hard to believe that this great river running for millions of years and nurturing the Chinese civilization for 5000 years came so close to death. However, what should we do to save our mother river? Today,more than 20 years later is the fate of Yellow River really safe again?
实际上，这条大河虽然古老却也十分脆弱。你现在看到的就几乎是它全部的支流，如果与条母亲河长江相比，可谓是天壤之别。而如果对比两个流域的降水量，差距也同样明显。正因如此，从河流的年径流量来看，黄河仅仅只有长江的 1/17，甚至将近 60% 的水量都来自兰州以上仅仅 28%的流域面积内，而接下来连片分布的沙漠和沙地又基本无法提供多少水源补给。直到关中平原一带最大的支流渭河注入，才让黄河水量有了片刻喘息。然而沿线的 9 个省区，尤其是宁夏、内蒙古、河南、山东等等，甚至流域之外极度缺水的河北天津都有大量的农业工业和人口需要从黄河取水，让本就不丰沛的黄河水雪上加霜。
In fact, this river is ancient though while very fragile. What you see now is almost all of its tributaries. If compared to the other mother river, the Yangtze River, there is a world of difference. And if comparing the precipitation of these two watersheds, we can see a significant gap. As a result, judging from the river's average annual runoff, the Yellow River is only 1/17 of the Yangtze River. Nearly 60% of the water even comes from just 28% of the watershed area above Lanzhou, while the deserts and sand lands distributed continuously can hardly meet much water supply. It is in the Guanzhong Plain where the largest tributary goes into the Yellow River that its water quantity gets temporarily relieved. However, nine provinces and regions along the river, especially Ningxia, Nei Mongol, Henan, and Shandong, even Hebei and Tianjin which are extremely short of water outside the river basin have a large demand to draw water from the Yellow river for agriculture,industry and population, making the already insufficient Yellow River water even worse.
因此，早在 1972 年，黄河下游就出现了第一次断流，并在之后的 20 多年里断流频发，为了争取宝贵的水资源，没有哪个地区愿意主动削减用水量，甚至在 1983 年统计各省用水需求时，总计需水量达到了近 700 亿立方米，远远超过了当时黄河本身的径流量。于是，一场关于水量分配的讨论甚至争论持续了整整 4 年。直到 1987 年，在经历了无数次的协调和征求意见后，中国历史上第一个针对大江大河的水量分配方案终于获批，史称八七分水方案。
Therefore, early in 1972, the first flow cutoff occurred in the lower Yellow River, and occurred frequently in the following 20 more years. In order to strive for valuable water resources, there was no region willing to reduce its water consumption. Even in 1983 when calculating the water demand of every province, the total water demand reached nearly 70 billion cubic meters, far exceeding the runoff of the Yellow River itself at that time. As a result, a discussion and even debate on water allocation continued for four full years. Until 1987, after countless rounds of coordination and consultation, China's first water allocation plan for larger rivers was finally approved, namely Water Allocation 87 Scheme.
可是想象中的转折并没有马上到来，毕竟长久以来的用水方式很难一朝一夕发生改变，再加上流域管理机构黄河水利委员会在当时并没有足够的权力对干流上的大型水库进行统一调度，更无法强制管控违规的取水行为。因此，部分地区仍在长期超量取水，黄河的断流也日益严重。到 10 年后的 1997 年，黄河断流已达到了史无前例的 226 天。面对如此不堪重负的母亲河，人们已经到了不得不做改变、不得不下决心的时候了。
However, the imagined turning point did not come immediately. After all,the long-term way of using water is impossible to change overnight. In addition, the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission had limited power at that time to uniformly regulate large reservoirs on the mainstream, not to mention to forcibly manage and control illegal water intake actions. Therefore, some regions were still taking excessive water for a long time. The flow cutoff problem of the Yellow River was getting increasingly serious. 10 years later, by 1997, the Yellow River had been cut off for unprecedented 226 days. Faced with such a heavy burden on the mother river, it was time for people to make changes and make decisions.
就在这第二年（1998 年），163 位院土联合发起了视频开头的那份签名，黄河水利委员会也获得了国务院的正式授权，开始逐步对干流上的龙洋峡、刘家峡、万家寨、三门峡、小浪底和支流上的一系列水库进行统一调度，黄河终于实现了整条河流的水量管理。到 2006 年，更是由国务院颁布了黄河水量调度条例，让黄河的水量管理有了正式的规范。再加上分水方案的完善、取水口的管理、水权交易等市场手段的建立，以及农业节水和引调水工程的建设等等，从 1999 年至今的 23 年里，尽管整个流域的 GDP 增长了 7 倍以上，黄河却再也未曾断流，黄河流域也成为了全国水资源利用效率最前列的地区之一。不过这条母亲河面临的问题却远不止水资源而已。
Just in the second year (1998), at the beginning of this video, 163 academicians jointly sponsored the signature, and the Yellow River Conservancy Commission was officially authorized by the State Council, to gradually regulate the reservoirs including Longyangxia, Liujiaxia, Wanjiazhai, Sanmenxia and Xiaolangdi on the mainstream and a series of others on the tributaries. The Yellow River finally achieved-its water management for the entire river. By 2006, the State Council had promulgated the Regulation on Water Dispatch of the Yellow River, which formalized the water management of the Yellow River. In addition to the improvement of water allocation plan, water intake management, the establishment of markets instruments such as water rights trading, and the construction of agricultural water saving project and water diversion projects, in the 23 years from 1999 till now, although the GDP of the entire basin has increased by more than 7 times, the Yellow River has never ceased flowing and this basin has also become one of the most efficient areas in the utilization of water resources in China. However, the problems faced by the mother river are not limited to water resources alone.
这是山东济南的黄河，属于黄河下游，而这是甘肃临夏的黄河，位于上游，它的改头换面发生在中游地区。在这里，黄河流经了世界上最大、最厚的黄土覆盖区，黄土高原。就像有句老话说，下一场大雨脱一层皮，发一回山水满沟泥，黄士高原严重的水生流失让黄河（曾经）成了世界上含沙量最大的河流，尤其当河流进入下游的华北平原，流速突然减缓，巨量的泥沙逐渐堆积，让河床不断抬高，甚至远远高出周围的地面，成为一条地上悬河，因而极易引发河堤决口，甚至河流改道。这意味着要想解决地上悬河问题，就必须解决泥沙问题。
This is the Yellow River in Jinan, Shandong, which belongs to the lower reaches of the Yellow River. And this is the Yellow River in Linxia, Gansu, located in the upper reaches. Its transformation occurred in the middle reaches. Here, the Yellow River flows through the world's largest and thickest loess coverage area, the Loess Plateau. As the saying goes, After a heavy rain, a layer of skin is peeled off and water fills the gullies with silt. The serious water and soil erosion of the Loess Plateau has made the Yellow River the river with the highest sediment content in the world. Especially when the river enters the North China Plain in the lower reaches the flow suddenly slows down and huge amounts of silt gradually accumulate, causing the riverbed to constantly rise even far higher than the surrounding land becoming an aboveground river that is extremely prone to burst its banks or even river channel changes. This means that solve the problem of the aboveground river, the sediment problem must be addressed.
而在历史上，人们主要的治沙策略可以归结为一个字，就是排。简单来说，就是尽快将泥沙冲入大海。但这样一来，无论是水还是泥沙都会直接流走，无法再被利用。因此新中国成立后，为了彻底解决黄河的泥沙等问题，同时发挥黄河的灌溉发电航运等效益，人们开始设想在黄土高原进行水士保持，从源头阻止大部分泥沙进入黄河，同时建设一系列梯级水库分段拦截水和泥沙，这种策略被称为蓄水拦沙。而在当时规划的一系列水库中，最大最重要的就是这座三门峡水库。
However,in history, the main sand control strategy for people is in one word: discharge. In simple terms, it is to quickly flush the silt into the sea. However, this way, both water and silt will flow away directly and cannot be reused. Therefore, after the establishment of People's Republic of China, in order to completely solve sediment and other problems of the Yellow River while taking effect in irrigation,power generation and shipping, people began to imagine soil and water conservation on the Loess Plateau, blocking most of the sediment from entering the Yellow River at the source, and building cascade reservoirs to intercept water and sediment in sections. This strategy is called water storage and silt detention. Among the series of planned reservoirs at that time, the largest and most important was the Sanmenxia Reservoir.
然而遗憾的是，那时的人们大大低估了黄土高原水土流失治理的难度，也过于乐观地估计了泥沙削减的效果。因此，在苏联专家的建议下，三门峡大坝不仅泄水孔位置较高、泄流规模较小，也没有在坝底保留最后的排沙通道。最终，这座设计方案中至少能使用 50 年的水库不到一年半就被能填满 100 多个西湖的泥沙严重淤积，也让陕西潼关一带河床抬高了 44 米，被阻挡的渭河水无路可去，只能住回倒灌，淹没大量土地，直接威胁古都西安。这座万里黄河第一坝以一种近乎悲壮的方式证明了这种粗暴的拦沙思想的失败。
However,unfortunately, people at that time greatly underestimated the difficulty of controlling soil erosion on the Loess Plateau, and were too optimistic about the effect of sediment reduction. Therefore, on the recommendation of Soviet experts, the Sanmenxia Dam not only had a higher position for the water discharge outlet and a smaller discharge scale, but also did not retain the last sediment outlet channel at the bottom of the dam. In the end, this reservoir,which was designed to be used for at least 50 years, was seriously silted up with sediment that could fill more than 100 West Lakes in less than 1.5 years. It also caused the riverbed in the vicinity of Tongguan, Shaanxi to rise by 4.4 meters, and the blocked Wei River had nowhere to go but to reverse flow and flood a large amount of land, directly threatening the ancient capital of Xi'an. This First Dam of the Yellow River has proved, in the almost tragic way, the failure of this crude sand-blocking idea.
无奈之下，人们重新为大坝增设改建了众多排沙渠道，甚至只在枯水期泥沙较少时蓄水，而在汛期泥沙量大时则大量泄水，促使泥沙排出水库。在这种蓄清排浑的方式下，三门峡库区的淤积情况才逐渐好转。但尽管如此，三门峡水库的实际运行能力仍然远低于设计时的水平，不过这次失败的经验也让人们开始重新反思治理思路进而探索出了新的方式，那就是调水调沙。
Helplessly, people have added and rebuilt many sand sluices for the dam, and even only store water during the dry season when there is less sediment, when sediment is high while releasing large amounts of water during the flood season promoting the discharge of sediment from the reservoir. Under this water storage and silt detention method, the sedimentation in the Sanmenxia Reservoir area gradually improved. Despite this, the actual operating capacity of the Sanmenxia Reservoir was still far below its design level. However, this experience of failure has also made people start to rethink their approach to governance and thus explore new ways, such as water-sediment regulation.
如今，黄河干流上规划的梯级水库中，万家寨小浪底等水库也先后建成。如果你在黄河汛期前来到小浪底景区，就有机会看到滚滚河水飞泻而下的壮观场面，只不过你看到的黄河水有时是清的，有时是浑的。若是清澈，一般是洪水来临前水库为了腾出库容下泄的清水。这些含沙量较少的水流正好用于冲刷下游河道的泥沙，而如果出现混浊的水流，则是在小浪底水库水位下降后，通过上游的万家寨和三门峡水库联合放水，让含沙量较高的水流进入小浪底库区，当它遇到清水时，就会因为密度过大潜到清水下方，从而将水底淤积的泥沙冲出库区，这就是异重流排沙。这样一来，通过上下游水库的联合调度，人们终于实现了对黄河水沙的主动调控。而与此同时，持续了 70 多年的水土流失治理也开始凸显成效。
Today, the planned cascade reservoirs on the mainstream of the Yellow River, including Wanjiazhai, Xiaolangdi and other reservoirs have been built one after another. If you come to Xiaolangdi before the Yellow River floods, you will have the opportunity to see the spectacular scene of the rolling river water rushing down. However, the Yellow River water you see is sometimes clear and sometimes turbid. If the water is clear, it is generally before the arrival of floods when the reservoir releases clear water to free up space for storage. These water flows with less sediment are used to flush downstream riverbed sediment. If there is turbid water, it is after the water level in Xiaolangdi reservoir drops and with cooperation from Wanjiashan and Sanmenxia Reservoirs upstream, water flows with high sediment content are allowed to enter the Xiaolangdi Reservoir. When it encounters clear water, the dense sediment sinks to the bottom of the clear water and flushes out the sedimentation in the reservoir, which is called density current sand transport. In this way, through joint scheduling of upstream and downstream reservoirs, people have finally achieved active control of the water and sediment of the Yellow River. At the same time, the continuous control of water and soil erosion for more than 70 years has begun to show its effectiveness.
如今的黄土高原和建国时相比，林草植被覆盖率提升了 59%，进入黄河的泥沙量则减少了将近 88%，而如今的黄河，下游主河槽不仅没有继续抬升，反而向下冲刷了 3.1 米。当然，这场黄河保卫战还远没有抵达终点。今天，黄河流域的 9 个省份内仍有 4 个处于极度或重度缺水，而全流域的水资源开发利用率已经高达 80% ，远超 40% 的生态警戒线，流域内仍有将近一半的水土流失面积等待有效的治理，小浪底水库的调水调沙能力也将逐渐到达极限。随着时代发展，人们还面临更多的挑战。比如上游的水源涵养、国家公园建设，中游的水土保持、污染治理，下游的湿地保护等等，势必需要统筹兼顾，而以水资源作为地方发展产规划的约束条件也需要成为更多城市的发展理念。
Today, compared to the founding of the country, the vegetation coverage of the Loess Plateau has increased by 59%, and the amount of sediment entering the Yellow River has decreased by nearly 88%. As for the Yellow River, the downstream main river channel has not continued to rise, but has instead flushed by 3.1 meters downstream. Of course, The Yellow River Defense War is far from over. Nowadays, Four of the nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin still suffer from extreme or severe water shortages, and the overall water resources utilization ratio is up to 80%, well beyond the ecological redline of 40%. Nearly half of the erosion areas in the basin still require effective control, and the capacity of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir's sediment and water regulation is gradually reaching its limit. As the times develop, people are faced with more challenges, such as upstream water conservation and national park construction, midstream soil and water conservation, pollution control, and downstream wetland protection. These challenges require comprehensive consideration and coordination, and the use of water resources as a constraint for local development and industrial planning needs to become a development concept for more cities.
黄河，这条世界上最为复杂的河流，注定了它的治理道路必然艰巨而漫长。在过去的 70 多年里，它是全国第一个进行水量分配的大河，第一个实施统一调度的大河。而在 2023 年 4 月 1 日，随着黄河保护法正式生效，更是将它的保护提高到了了前所未有的高度。这条古老的大河在百万年前出生，一万年前成形。它无言地流淌，沿着大自然的规律，涨落、侵蚀、搬运、堆积。而与之相比，我们的探索和认知还太过短暂。如何与它相处，贯穿着中华文明的古今。而未来，也将是一个永恒的命题
The Yellow River, for being the most complex river in the world, has always faced a difficult and long path to its restoration. Over the past 70 years, it has been the first large river in the country to implement water allocation and unified regulation. With the formal implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law on April 1, 2023, its protection will reach an unprecedented level. This ancient river was born 1 million years ago and formed 10,000 years age. It flows silently along the laws of nature, fluctuating, eroding, transporting, and depositing. And compared to it, our exploration is still too short. The question of how to get along with it has been intertwined with the ancient and modern civilizations of China. In the future, it will continue to began eternal topic.
