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Understanding the impacts of ecological projects on household livelihoods is important in ensuring their sustainability. However, existing studies typically cover only a limited, discrete temporal point. Insufficient study duration makes it difficult to determine the full impact and dynamics of a project, affecting the veracity of the results. Representing one of the world's largest investments in an ecosystem service programs, the Grain for Green Project (GGP) has an objective of increasing household incomes. Using data from 7112 questionnaires collected through 12 consecutive years (2007–2018) of field survey monitoring, this study examined the long-term impacts of the GGP on household livelihoods in the Beijing–Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control Project area through comparisons between participant households (PHs) and non-participant households (NPHs). The results show that GGP subsidies significantly increased household incomes only during the period 2007–2015, and their share of total household income decreased from 9.21% in 2007 to 1.62% in 2018. Subsidies for GGP cannot compensate farmers for losses due to the reduction in farmland. The above findings suggest that the effect of subsidies diminishes over time. Increased investment in jobs and skills training is needed to consolidate the GGP results. This provides new perspectives and empirical support for the study of international ecological compensation policies and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An acoustic Doppler current profiler is used to characterize the river velocity against the morphology of the Yangtze River from Chonqing to the sea. High flow velocities occur in the Three Gorges section and lower velocities in the middle and lower reaches of the river. This is largely due to the change in river pattern from a high gradient deeply-cut valley to a flat fluvial plain. Flow velocities fluctuate in the middle Yangtze due to the presence of meander bends of different length. There are numerous smaller velocity fluctuations in the lower Yangtze channel that reflect multichannel pattern with numerous sand bars and a river morphology affected by bedrock outcrops. Water depths of 40–100 m occur in the Three Gorges valley but decrease to 15–40 m in the middle and lower Yangtze. At the Gezhou Reservoir, 30 km downstream of the Three Gorges damsite velocity drops to low (<1.0 m s−1) 20 km reach. A second low velocity (<0.5 m s−1) zone, about 20 km in length, is located in the lower Yangtze near the coast probably due to the tidal influence. The results from this research will serve as a datum for evaluating changes to the river once the Three Gorges dam is completed in 2009. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]