Abstract: A combined shipping-ground transport system (CSGTS) is built integrating the river channels and existing ground transportation network based on the theory of intermodal transport and comprehensive transport system, to enhance the integrated regulation of water resources in the background of different developing progress. This system is applied in the scheduling of four cascade reservoirs on the lower Jinsha River, and predicts the impacting scope, freight volume and profit of shipping traffic in 2015-2050 for the condition of a regional economic growth rate of 7%. It reveals the important role of cascade reservoirs in regional traffic economy and their impact increasing with the cascade building. For the system of the lower Jinsha River, its freight traffic volume and freight spreading area are correlated with the daily scheduling of the cascade reservoirs. Under a scheduling scheme that meets the operating standards, a scenario of its daily scale variations is demonstrated for the cases of two reservoirs and four reservoirs in operation. This shows that the reservoir scheduling produces a pulse-type effect on the entire system and affects the spreading of freight cumulatively. For a pulse differential system based on the microscopic scale characteristics of a CSGTS, if an asymptotic stable solution can be obtained, the control strategy (or the scheduling scheme) so obtained will be the optimal pulse-harvesting strategy of the CSGTS.

Key words: hydraulic engineering, shipping traffic, land-water coupling integrated transportation system, microscopic dynamic characteristics, pulse differentiation