Gaoping River

Gaoping River (高屏溪)
Shimo-Tansui Railway Bridge (Old Kaoping River Iron Bridge) across the lower Gaoping River
Country Taiwan
Source Yushan
 - elevation 3,400 m (11,155 ft)
 - coordinates 23°28′29″N 120°02′15″E / 23.47472°N 120.03750°E / 23.47472; 120.03750
Mouth Taiwan Strait
 - location Linyuan District, Kaohsiung City
 - elevation 0 m (0 ft)
 - coordinates 22°28′59″N 120°34′47″E / 22.48306°N 120.57972°E / 22.48306; 120.57972Coordinates: 22°28′59″N 120°34′47″E / 22.48306°N 120.57972°E / 22.48306; 120.57972
Length 171 km (106 mi)
Basin 3,285 km2 (1,268 sq mi)
Discharge
 - average 268 m3/s (9,464 cu ft/s)
 - max 27,447 m3/s (969,282 cu ft/s)
Location of the Gaoping River basin in southern Taiwan

The Gaoping River, also spelled Kaoping River, (Chinese: 高屏溪; pinyin: Gāopíng Xī; Wade–Giles: Kao1-p'ing2 Hsi1) is a major river of southern Taiwan, flowing through Pingtung County and Kaohsiung City. The river is 171 kilometres (106 mi) long, draining a rugged area on the western side of the Central Mountain Range.

Characteristics

The Gaoping River headwaters originate near Yushan in northern Kaohsiung’s Tauyuan District and a small part of southern Nantou County. The upper section of the river flows through a series of rugged canyons, through Liouguei and Gaoshu. The river emerges from the mountains at Meinong as a wide braided stream and flows about 75 kilometres (47 mi) south along the coastal plain, through Pingtung County, emptying into the Taiwan Strait in Linyuan District.

Headwaters of the Gaoping River

The river has several major tributaries, all of which join in Pingtung County: the Zhuokou River from the east near Meinong; the Ailiao River from the east and the Laonong River from the north at Ligang; and the Wuluo River from the east near Pingtung City.

With an average annual discharge of 8.45 cubic kilometres (6,850,000 acre·ft), the Gaoping River is the second largest of Taiwan’s rivers by volume, following the Tamsui River. About 90 percent of the precipitation, and consequently about 70–90 percent of the total flow, occurs during the rainy season from May to October.[1] Like many Taiwanese rivers, the Gaoping carries large amounts of silt, ranging from 36 to 49 million tons per year.[2]

Almost half the total basin has an elevation greater than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). Only about 20 percent of the basin is lower than 100 metres (330 ft) in elevation.[3] The Kaoping River valley is generally considered the boundary between the Alishan Range on the west and the higher Yushan Range to the east.[4]

The Gaoping River basin is home to at least 66 fish species, 14 of which are endemic.[5]

History

During Japanese rule the Gaoping River was known as the Shimo Tansui-kei (下淡水溪). The Japanese colonial government built the Shimo-Tansui Railway Bridge (now known as the Old Gaoping River Iron Bridge), at the time the longest iron bridge in Asia. The bridge was designed by engineer Toyoji Ida (飯田豐二). Due to the unpredictable nature of the river the bridge took eight years to complete, at the cost of 42 lives.[6]

On August 27, 2000, flooding damaged a bridge across the Gaoping River causing 16 vehicles to fall into the water, injuring 22 people.[7]

In 2009 Typhoon Morakot caused severe flooding along the Gaoping River. About 3 metres (120 in) of rain (one year’s typical precipitation) fell over the Gaoping River basin in a period of three days.[3] The river flow peaked at 27,447 cubic metres per second (969,300 cu ft/s) on August 8, and exceeded 20,000 cubic metres per second (710,000 cu ft/s) for a total of nine hours.[8] Several towns along the upper river were destroyed by flooding and landslides, killing up to 500 people.[9] The flow of the river was so strong that it created currents of up to 60 kilometres (37 mi) per hour in the Taiwan Strait, damaging or destroying eight submarine cables.[10]

Human use

The Laonong River tributary below the site of the proposed Meinong Dam

The Gaoping is one of the few rivers in western Taiwan without a major dam in its basin. However, the river is used extensively for irrigation on the Pingtung plain and its tributaries supply water for domestic and industrial use. The Jishui River tributary is diverted to fill Nanhua Reservoir, which provides nearly 90% of the water supply for Kaohsiung City.[9]

In the 1980s there was a proposal to build a dam on the Laonong River tributary, near Meinong. The project was officially overturned in 2000 by then-President Chen Shui-bian, who stated, “As long as there are alternative ways to supply water to the greater Kaohsiung area, it is not necessary to build the Meinung [sic] Dam.”[11] The dam would have flooded an area culturally significant to the Hakka people.[12]

The lower part of the river is heavily polluted by runoff from factories and livestock operations, especially from pigs and chickens. A significant amount of contamination originates from the Wuluo River tributary. Up to 65% of the pollution is caused by runoff from swine farms, with another 21% from industry, 13% from domestic waste and 2% from landfills.[13]

Transportation

TRA bridge crossing the Gaoping River

Provincial Highway No. 20, which provides access between Pingtung County and Taitung County, follows the Gaoping River for about 40 kilometres (25 mi) between Liouguei and Haiduan Township.

The Ligang Cable-Stayed Bridge crosses the Gaoping on Freeway 3 (Second Southern Freeway) from Kaohsiung to Pingtung County.

Tributaries

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gaoping River.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.trrn.tw/understandingRiver/view.do?id=12ce3264699000001c8a
  2. ↑ http://www.mgac.nsysu.edu.tw/liu/fates_special_issue/huh.pdf
  3. 1 2 http://tao.cgu.org.tw/pdf/v226p549.pdf
  4. ↑ Robert Kelly; Chung Wah Chow (1 February 2014). Lonely Planet Taiwan. Lonely Planet Publications. p. 769. ISBN 978-1-74321-835-8.
  5. ↑ http://ics.wrap.gov.tw/icsweb/ekriver1730.asp
  6. ↑ Professor Izumi Kuroishi (28 March 2014). Constructing the Colonized Land: Entwined Perspectives of East Asia around WWII. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4724-0436-7.
  7. ↑ Gangbing Song; Ramesh B. Malla (1 April 2010). Earth and Space 2010: Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments. ASCE Publications. p. 2568. ISBN 978-0-7844-1096-7.
  8. ↑ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2012GL051172/pdf
  9. 1 2 Konrad Otto-Zimmermann (4 May 2012). Resilient Cities 2: Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change – Proceedings of the Global Forum 2011. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 78. ISBN 978-94-007-4223-9.
  10. ↑ Douglas R. Burnett; Robert Beckman; Tara M. Davenport (24 October 2013). Submarine Cables: The Handbook of Law and Policy. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 244. ISBN 978-90-04-26033-7.
  11. ↑ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2000/08/06/0000046635
  12. ↑ http://taiwaninfo.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=18185&CtNode=103&htx_TRCategory=&mp=4
  13. ↑ Tsui-jung Liu (16 April 2014). Environmental History in East Asia: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Taylor & Francis. p. 416. ISBN 978-1-317-97489-5.
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