Dam construction has become one of the most controversial and wide-debated issues these days, mainly due to the unanticipated
ecological risk it brings to river basin. Though the environmental impact caused by dam project has been reported in considerable
literatures, most of them were concerned with the condition of aquatic ecosystem (e.g., hydrology, water quality, sediment, and
aquatic fauna) with the potential risk of terrestrial ecosystem remaining unsettled. This study estimated the ecological risk on
terrestrial ecosystem after dam construction by focusing on the heavy metal pollution and distribution of plant community in
Lancang River of LRGR. The heavy metals were determined, and the plants were investigated in the reservoir and downstream of
three dams built on the river. The results showed that notable changes had taken place in both objects, which indicated the
existence of ecological risk on river ecosystem. This study might serve as the first step of computing dam-induced risk in wholeecosystem
scale