Three Gorges Dam dam. An important function of the dam is to control flooding, which is a major problem for the seasonal river of the Yangtze. Millions of people live downstream of the dam, with many large, important cities like Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai situated adjacent to the river. Plenty of farm land and China's most important industrial area are built beside the river. The reservoir's flood storage capacity is . This capacity will reduce the frequency of major downstream flooding from once every ten years to once every 100 years. The dam is expected to minimize the effect of even a "super"
Three Gorges Dam from the dam to the main urban area of Chongqing by 2020. However, the municipal government explained that the relocation is due to urbanization, rather than the dam, and people involved included other areas of the municipality. Allegedly, funds for relocating 13,000 farmers around Gaoyang disappeared after being sent to the local government, leaving residents without compensation. The long reservoir flooded some 1,300 archaeological sites and altered the appearance of the Three Gorges as the water level rose over . Cultural and historical relics are being moved to higher ground as they are discovered, but the flooding inevitably covered undiscovered