Human Impact on Mississippi by Reservoirs, Dams and Levees

Over 84 million people live within the Mississippi Basin. As one of the world's five largest river basins, the Mississippi River Basin's agricultural landscape supports 92% of the U.S.'s agricultural exports and 78% of the world's grain and soybean exports. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the impact of human activities on the hydrological conditions of the Mississippi River Basin. As a regulating and storage project, reservoirs are responsible for controlling floods, providing water resources, controlling river water levels, and providing ecological protection; at the same time, dams can protect farmland, roads, factories and other facilities on both sides from being submerged when floods occur. As artificial facilities, dams have a greater impact on hydrological conditions than small-scale precipitation and reservoirs impact the hydrological status of river basins to a great extent. So, through the reservoir, we can directly see the impact of human beings on the natural water system. In some traditional views, the impact of dams and reservoirs on watersheds is completely within human control, but research has found that artificial water conservancy facilities under normal operation will invisibly change the hydrology, ecology and environment of the basin.