scholarly journals Impacts of Climate Variability and Human Activities on the Changes of Runoff and Sediment Load in a Catchment of the Loess Plateau, China

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Tian ◽  
Xingmin Mu ◽  
Jianli Liu ◽  
Jinfei Hu ◽  
Chaojun Gu

The objectives of this study are to investigate the changes of runoff and sediment load and their potential influencing factors in the Huangfuchuan catchment. The Mann-Kendall test and accumulative anomaly methods were, respectively, applied to examine the changing trends and abrupt changes. Both annual runoff and sediment load demonstrated significant reduction (p<0.05) with decreasing rates of −3.2 × 106 m3/a and −1.09 Mt/a, respectively. The abrupt changes were detected in 1979 and 1996 for the runoff and sediment load. All the runoff and sediment indices (runoff, sediment load, runoff coefficient, and sediment concentration) exhibited remarkable reduction (p<0.01). The climate variability contributed 24.4% and 25.1% during 1980–1996 and 1997–2010 to annual runoff decrease, respectively, and human activities accounted for the remaining 75.6% and 74.9%. In contrast, changes in precipitation accounted for 43.5% and 20.2% of sediment load reduction during 1980–1996 and 1997–2010, whereas the human activities contributed 56.5% and 79.8%, respectively. The relative contributions from climate variability and human activities to runoff and sediment load changes at annual scale were different from that at flood season scale. Results suggested the dominant role of soil and water conservations in the variation of runoff and sediment load in the catchment.

2014 ◽  
Vol 641-642 ◽  
pp. 25-28
Author(s):  
Shao Yun Deng

The author had given a brief introduction of Tarim River, and the analysis of its water network and the surrounding environmental features, and a few important representative of Tarim River tributaries and the main stream of the four major hydrological stations measured runoff for many years, the annual runoff, the average annual sediment load, the annual sediment load, the annual average sediment concentration, the annual sediment concentration, the average annual sediment transport modulus, the annual sediment transport modulus index data were analyzed. And on this basis, the author had given the further analysis of Tarim River stream sediment distribution characteristics, and had described the sediment source and characteristics of Tarim River.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifang Yao ◽  
Changxing Shi ◽  
Wenwei Shao ◽  
Jianbin Bai ◽  
Hui Yang

Using data of temperature, wind, precipitation, water discharge, and sediment load, the changes in runoff and sediment load of the Xiliugou basin in the upper Yellow River were investigated and the contributions of climate change and human activities to these changes were quantitatively estimated. Results show that the runoff and sediment load of the stream declined gradually in 1960–2012. According to the abrupt change point detected, the runoff and sediment series were divided into two periods: 1960–1998 and 1999–2012. The reductions of runoff and sediment load in 1999–2012 were found to be related to climate change and human activities, and the latter played a dominant role with a contribution of about 68% and 75%, respectively. The effects of rainfall intensity should be considered to avoid overestimating or underestimating the contributions of rainfall changes to the variations of runoff and sediment load in the semiarid region. An inspection of changes in water discharge and sediment regime indicated that the frequency of discharge between 0 and 5 m3/s increased while that between 5 and 1000 m3/s decreased in 2006–2012. This phenomenon can be attributed principally to the soil and water conservation practices.


Időjárás ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 125 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-462
Author(s):  
Slobodan Gnjato ◽  
Tatjana Popov ◽  
Dragutin Adžić ◽  
Marko Ivanišević ◽  
Goran Trbić ◽  
...  

The paper examines changes in air temperature, precipitation, and river discharges on seasonal and annual scale over the Sava River watershed in Bosnia & Herzegovina during the period 1961–2016. Based upon data gathered from 11 meteorological stations and 3 hydrological stations, hydroclimatic variables trends were established by utilizing the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test and the nonparametric Sen’s slope estimator. The results show significant positive seasonal and annual trends (expect for autumn, during which upward trends were insignificant) in air temperature, whereas both positive and negative insignificant seasonal and annual precipitation trends are shown where determined for the entire watershed. Most prominent upward trends in air temperature were found in summer and afterwards in winter and spring, indicating a pronounced warming tendency over the Sava River watershed. Trends in river discharge displayed a negative tendency in all seasons. Nevertheless, a majority of estimated trends of river discharges were weak and statistically insignificant. Throughout the year, river discharges showed significant positive correlation with precipitation, whilst connection with air temperature was mostly significant and negative. The study results suggest that climate is an important factor affecting river regimes, as well as that changes in river discharges are reflecting recent abrupt changes in climatic variables.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renzhi Li ◽  
Heqing Huang ◽  
Guoan Yu ◽  
Hong Yu ◽  
Arika Bridhikitti ◽  
...  

Mun River is the largest tributary of the Mekong River in Thailand and provides abundant water resources not only for an important agricultural area in Thailand but also for the lower Mekong River. To understand how the runoff of Mun River responds to climate change and human activities in recent decades, this study performed a detailed examination of the characteristics of runoff variation based on measurements at two hydrological gauging stations on the main stem of Mun River during 1980–2018. Using the Mann-Kendall test, Morlet wavelet transform and Double Cumulative Curve methods, this study identifies that the variation of annual runoff of Mun River encountered an abruption in 1999/2000, with an increased trend taking place since then. Furthermore, a detailed assessment of the effects of the variations in rainfall, temperature, evaporation, and land use types extracted from remote sensing images at the basin scale reveals that a significant reduction in forest area and slight reductions in evaporation and farmland area taking place since 1999 can lead to an increase in the runoff of Mun River, while the dramatic increase in garden area since 1999 tends to make the runoff decrease.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zharong Pan ◽  
Xiaohong Ruan ◽  
Mingkai Qian ◽  
Jian Hua ◽  
Nan Shan ◽  
...  

AbstractThe water shortage in the Huaihe River Basin (HRB), China, has been aggravated by population growth and climate change. To identify the characteristics of streamflow change and assess the impact of climate variability and human activities on hydrological processes, approximately 50 years of natural and observed streamflow data from 20 hydrological stations were examined. The Mann–Kendall test was employed to detect trends. The results showed the following. (i) Both the natural and the observed streamflow in the HRB present downward trends, and the decreasing rate of observed streamflow is generally faster than that of the natural streamflow. (ii) For the whole period, negative trends dominate in the four seasons in the basin. The highest decreasing trends for two kinds of streamflow both occurred in spring, and the lowest ones were in autumn and winter. (iii) Based on the above analysis and quantifying assessment for streamflow decrease, human activity was the main driving factor in the Xuanwu (80.78%), Zhuangqiao (79.92%), Yongcheng (74.80%), and Mengcheng (64.73%) stations which all belong to the Huaihe River System (HRS). On the other hand, climate variability was the major driving factor in the Daguanzhuang (68.89%) and Linyi (63.38%) stations which all belong to the Yishusi River System (YSR).


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 725-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdollah Pirnia ◽  
Mohammad Golshan ◽  
Hamid Darabi ◽  
Jan Adamowski ◽  
Sajad Rozbeh

AbstractAnalyzing intra-annual stream flow can reveal the main causes for runoff changes and the contributions of climate variability and human activities. For this purpose, the Mann–Kendall and cumulative rank difference (CRD) tests, and the double mass curve method, were applied to a time series of hydro-meteorological variables from 1971 to 2010 in the Tajan River basin in Iran. Results indicated that runoff changes in the wet and dry seasons after 1999 had significant respective decreasing and increasing trends, at the 0.01 confidence level, due to dam construction. In the pre-dam period (1991–1998), the results of the double mass curve method showed that climate variability and human activities contributed 57.76% and 42.24%, respectively, to the runoff decrease during the wet season. For the post-dam period (1999–2010), climate variability and anthropogenic activities contributed 24.68% and 75.32%, respectively, to the wet season runoff decrease of 116.55 mm. On the other hand, in the same period during the dry season, climate variability contributed −30.68% and human activities contributed 130.68% to the runoff increase of 41.45 mm. It is evident that runoff changes in both wet and dry seasons were mainly due to human activities associated with dam construction to meet water supply demands for agriculture.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1213-1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Wang ◽  
X. Mu ◽  
R. Hessel ◽  
W. Zhang ◽  
C. Ritsema ◽  
...  

Abstract. Runoff and sediment load changes are affected by climate change and human activities in an integrated way. Historical insight into these effects can not only improve the knowledge of river processes, but also promote more effective land and water management. In this study, we looked at runoff and sediment change in the Yan River Basin, Loess Plateau, China, using data sets on land use and land cover (LUC), monthly data of precipitation and temperature, and observed data on runoff and sediment load from 1952 to 2010 at the Ganguyi Hydrologic Station. Available data on soil and water conservation structures and their effect were also studied. Five main findings emerged from the data analysis. (1) The annual runoff and sediment load varied greatly during the last 60 yr and both had coefficients of variation that were much larger than those of precipitation and temperature. (2) Annual runoff and sediment load both showed a significant trend of linear decline over the period studied. The climate data showed a non-significant decline in precipitation over the same period, and a very significant increase in temperature; both can help explain the observed declines in runoff and soil loss. (3) Based on a mass curve analysis with anomalies of normalized runoff and sediment load, 4 stages in the change of runoff and soil loss were identified: 1951 to 1971 (Stage I), 1972 to 1986 (Stage II), 1987 to 1996 (Stage III) and 1997 to 2010 (Stage IV). (4) When years were paired based on similar precipitation and temperature condition (SPTC) and used to assess the impacts of human activities, it was found that 6 sets of paired years out of 12 (50%) showed a decline in runoff 8 (67%) a decline in sediment load and 9 (75%) a decline in sediment concentration The other sets show an increasing change with the time. It showed the complexity of human impacts. (5) Human impacts relating to LUC change and soil and water measures in this basin were significant because of both the transfer of sloping cropland into non-food vegetation or terraces and the siltation in the reservoirs and behind check dams. Data indicated that about 56 Mt of sediment was deposited annually from 1960–1999 as a result of the soil and water conservation structures, which is significantly more than the 42 Mt that is, on average, leaving the Yan River Basin as sediment load each year. Although the effects of climate change and human action could not be separated, analysis of the data indicated that both had a significant impact on runoff and sediment loss in the area.


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