The paper briefly describes the complicated water network system of the Songzi River. It comprehensively and systematically analyzes the Songzi River's formation, evolution and characteristics. The Songzi River develops as the biggest flood channel for shunt under the constant silting-up and the shrink in three outlets and the progressive decrease of sand and flow diversion because of straightening the Jingjiang River's bend. And then the paper emphasizes that the Songzi estuary comes into

more »

... a lager bank caving after the operation of Three Gorge Project. The sediment generated by bank caving continuously moves to the wide and shallow branching channel to deposit, which certainly will speed up the sedimentation of the flood channel, increase the strength of the choked flow, give rise to the great change of river regime and bring about many negative effects. The crucial point is that it will expedite the shrink and decline of the Songzi River. It particularly expounds that we need to always retain the Songzi River for the long-term need of flood prevention of the Jingjiang River and the solution of serious water shortage. The paper points out the importance and urgency to keep the river flow through all the year and puts forward some relative engineering measures for planning and design department to refer.