The reservoir of the Three Gorges Project is a typical long and narrow reservoir with the average width of 1576 m. By the time when the water level of the reservoir water storage of the Three Gorges Project comes up to 175 m, the normal water level, the total length of the reservoir of the Three Gorges Project will be 663 km. The end of the water storage will have reached Huahongbao of Jiangjin City. More than 50 tributaries flow from either of the side of the Yangtze River into the main Yangtze River. Within the reservoir region, the total reservoir-bank length of both the main Yangtze River and all the tributaries of this length of the Yangtze River would be 5,300 km.

The State Government has been much concerned with the stability of the dam and the banks of the reservoir of the Three Gorges Project for the safety of the local people in the reservoir region, the safe operation of the Three Gorges Project and the safe navigation of the ships coming and going in the reservoir. By the late 1980's, the State Planning Commission ( SPC ), the State Science Commission ( SSC ), the former Ministry of Ore Industry, the Ministry of Water Resources ( MWR ) and the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission ( YRWRC )under MWR, the China Science Academy ( CSA ) and both the Geology Institute and the Geography Institute under CSA had all joined the investigations and surveys of the stability of the banks of the reservoir of the Three Gorges Project since the 1950's to have presented a study report of dozens of 10,000 Chinese words on the stability of the dam and the banks of the reservoir of the Three Gorges Project. By then, they had learnt in details the soil/ rock bodies on collapse/ slide, their locations, their elevations, their rock properties, their quantities, etc through their detailed investigations and surveys.

YRWRC had then individually examined the soil/ rock bodies on collapse/ slide before the construction of the Three Gorges Project since the large emigration from the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project to edit and issue the General Planning on the Solution to the Soil/ Rock Bodies on Collapse/ Slide in the Reservoir Region of the Three Gorges Project. By July of 1999, the State Council decided at the meeting on the corresponding supports to the emigration from the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project to set up the work team headed by the Ministry of Territory and Natural Resources (MTNR) on the control of the geological harms in the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project. The former Premier Zhu Rongji stressed at the meeting that the Three Gorges Project was a general planning and the control of the geological harms and the reservation of the environments were both extremely important parts of the Three Gorges Project. Mr. Zhu then particularly stressed that the projects of the control of the geological harms should be carried out rapidly with the short investigation and survey, the short planning, the short proposal submission, the short approval and the short application of the projects. In addition, he showed his concerns on the projects to instruct that the projects should be scientifically certified and the procedure for approval should be simplified so that the projects would be soon carried out. During 2000~2001, MTNR completed the investigation and survey of the geological harms in the 20 counties/ cities, including the areas to settle the immigrants, of the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project and then edited and issued the General Planning for the Control of the Geological Harms in the Reservoir Region of the Three Gorges Project. Now this general planning has been actively carried out.

There were then 2490 small, medium and large soil/ rock bodies on collapse/ slide within the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project, of which 1627 would be directly affected by the reservoir water storage and 863 were then scattered in the areas of immigration for the construction of the Three Gorges Project. 578 of the above soil/ rock bodies on collapse/ slide would be unnecessary to be controlled/ disposed of because they would be completely submerged with the reservoir water storage. But 1912 of the above soil/ rock bodies should be controlled/ disposed of, of which 617 should be disposed of with the engineering projects and 197 had been disposed of by June of 2003; of which 553 wouldn't be necessary to be disposed of with the engineering projects because the emigrants there would remove and from 232 of which the emigrants had removed by 2004; and of which 1738 would be put under the supervision of the warning system and 152 had been put under the supervision of the warning system. It is very important to set up the warning system for the geological harms in the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project. It has been adopted to set up the supervision and warning system composed of the state/ provincial/ state-controlled-city/ regional/ county geological supervision stations together with the local supervisions and controls to predict any possible geological harms in time for the safeties of the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the navigation on the Yangtze River and the economic development in the reservoir region.