scholarly journals Land Use/Cover Change Effects on River Basin Hydrological Processes Based on a Modified Soil and Water Assessment Tool: A Case Study of the Heihe River Basin in Northwest China’s Arid Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Jin ◽  
Yanxiang Jin ◽  
Xufeng Mao
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Distributed Models ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Increasing Trends

Land use/cover change (LUCC) affects canopy interception, soil infiltration, land-surface evapotranspiration (ET), and other hydrological parameters during rainfall, which in turn affects the hydrological regimes and runoff mechanisms of river basins. Physically based distributed (or semi-distributed) models play an important role in interpreting and predicting the effects of LUCC on the hydrological processes of river basins. However, conventional distributed (or semi-distributed) models, such as the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT), generally assume that no LUCC takes place during the simulation period to simplify the computation process. When applying the SWAT, the subject river basin is subdivided into multiple hydrologic response units (HRUs) based on the land use/cover type, soil type, and surface slope. The land use/cover type is assumed to remain constant throughout the simulation period, which limits the ability to interpret and predict the effects of LUCC on hydrological processes in the subject river basin. To overcome this limitation, a modified SWAT (LU-SWAT) was developed that incorporates annual land use/cover data to simulate LUCC effects on hydrological processes under different climatic conditions. To validate this approach, this modified model and two other models (one model based on the 2000 land use map, called SWAT 1; one model based on the 2009 land use map, called SWAT 2) were applied to the middle reaches of the Heihe River in northwest China; this region is most affected by human activity. Study results indicated that from 1990 to 2009, farmland, forest, and urban areas all showed increasing trends, while grassland and bare land areas showed decreasing trends. Primary land use changes in the study area were from grassland to farmland and from bare land to forest. During this same period, surface runoff, groundwater runoff, and total water yield showed decreasing trends, while lateral flow and ET volume showed increasing trends under dry, wet, and normal conditions. Changes in the various hydrological parameters were most evident under dry and normal climatic conditions. Based on the existing research of the middle reaches of the Heihe River, and a comparison of the other two models from this study, the modified LU-SWAT developed in this study outperformed the conventional SWAT when predicting the effects of LUCC on the hydrological processes of river basins.

scholarly journals Integrated assessment of the impacts of climate variability and anthropogenic activities on river runoff: a case study in the Hutuo River Basin, China

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 416-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abubaker Omer ◽  
Weiguang Wang ◽  
Amir K. Basheer ◽  
Bin Yong
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Runoff Reduction ◽  
Sustainable Water Resources Management

Understanding the linear and nonlinear responses of runoff to environmental change is crucial to optimally manage water resources in river basins. This study proposes a generic framework-based hydrological model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)) and two approaches, to comprehensively assess the impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate variability on runoff over the representative Hutuo River Basin (HRB), China. Results showed that SWAT performed well in capturing the runoff trend in HRB; however, it exhibited better performance for the calibration period than for the validation. During 1961–2000, about 26.06% of the catchment area was changed, mainly from forest to farmland and urban, and the climate changed to warmer and drier. The integrated effects of the anthropogenic activities and climate variability decreased annual runoff in HRB by 96.6 mm. Direct human activities were responsible for 52.16% of runoff reduction. Climate (land use) decreased runoff by 45.30% (2.06%), whereas the combined (land use + climate) impact resulted in more runoff decrease, by 47.84%. Land use–climate interactive effect is inherent in HRB and decreased runoff by 1.02%. The proposed framework can be applied to improve the current understanding of runoff variation in river basins, for supporting sustainable water resources management strategies.

scholarly journals Carbon Storage Change Analysis and Emission Reduction Suggestions under Land Use Transition: A Case Study of Henan Province, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1844
Author(s):  
Dongyang Xiao ◽  
Haipeng Niu ◽  
Jin Guo ◽  
Suxia Zhao ◽  
Liangxin Fan
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Yangtze River Basin ◽  
Yellow River Basin ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Henan Province ◽  
Huai River

The significant spatial heterogeneity among river basin ecosystems makes it difficult for local governments to carry out comprehensive governance for different river basins in a special administrative region spanning multi-river basins. However, there are few studies on the construction of a comprehensive governance mechanism for multi-river basins at the provincial level. To fill this gap, this paper took Henan Province of China, which straddles four river basins, as the study region. The chord diagram, overlay analysis, and carbon emission models were applied to the remote sensing data of land use to analyze the temporal and spatial patterns of carbon storage caused by land-use changes in Henan Province from 1990 to 2018 to reflect the heterogeneity of the contribution of the four basins to human activities and economic development. The results revealed that food security land in the four basins decreased, while production and living land increased. Ecological conservation land was increased over time in the Yangtze River Basin. In addition, the conversion from food security land to production and living land was the common characteristic for the four basins. Carbon emission in Henan increased from 134.46 million tons in 1990 to 553.58 million tons in 2018, while its carbon absorption was relatively stable (1.67–1.69 million tons between 1990 and 2018). The carbon emitted in the Huai River Basin was the main contributor to Henan Province’s total carbon emission. The carbon absorption in Yellow River Basin and Yangtze River Basin had an obvious spatial agglomeration effect. Finally, considering the current need of land spatial planning in China and the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060 set by the Chinese government, we suggested that carbon sequestration capacity should be further strengthened in Yellow River Basin and Yangtze River Basin based on their respective ecological resource advantages. For future development in Hai River Basin and Huai River Basin, coordinating the spatial allocation of urban scale and urban green space to build an ecological city is a key direction to embark upon.

scholarly journals Spatial Pattern Analysis of a Water-Related Ecosystem Service and Evaluation of the Grassland-Carrying Capacity of the Heihe River Basin under Land Use Change

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 2658
Author(s):  
Rui Luo ◽  
Shiliang Yang ◽  
Yang Zhou ◽  
Pengqun Gao ◽  
Tianming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Heihe River Basin ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Heihe River Basin

A key challenge to the sustainability and security of grassland capacity is the protection of water-related ecosystem services (WESs). With the change of land use, the supply of aquatic ecosystem services has changed, and the grassland-carrying capacity has been affected. However, the correlation mechanism between WESs and the grassland-carrying capacity is not clear. In this study, we used the InVEST(Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to evaluate the impact of land-use change on WESs, and made a tradeoff analysis between WESs and grassland-carrying capacity. Considering that the Heihe River Basin (HRB) was an important grassland vegetation zone, which was a milestone for the development of animal husbandry in China, HRB was taken as a case. The main findings are as follows: (1) the spatial distribution of WESs shows the dissimilation rule, the upper reaches are the main water yield area, the soil retention is weakening in the middle and lower reaches, and the pollution has further increased in the middle and upper reaches. (2) The carrying capacity of animal husbandry decreased in the upper reaches, increased in Shandan County and Zhangye City in the middle reaches, and decreased sharply in other regions. (3) There was a positive correlation between the livestock-carrying capacity and nitrogen export in 2018, which was increasing. As the change of land use has changed the evapotranspiration structure, WESs have undergone irreversible changes. Meanwhile, the development of large-scale irrigated farmland and human activities would be the source of a further intensification of regional soil erosion and water pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to trade off the WESs and animal husbandry under land-use change. This paper revealed how WESs changed from 2000 to 2018, the characteristics of the changes in the spatial and temporal distribution, and the carrying capacity. It aims to provide a scientific basis for coordinating the contradiction between grassland and livestock resources, improving the regional ecological security situation, and carrying out ecosystem management.

Integrated numerical model for irrigated area water resources management

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 980-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidi Huo ◽  
Xiaofan Wang ◽  
Yan Liang ◽  
Cheng Jiang ◽  
Xiaolu Zheng
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Heihe River Basin ◽  
Irrigation District ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Long Term Effects

Abstract The likelihood of future global water shortages is increasing and further development of existing operational hydrologic models is needed to maintain sustainable development of the ecological environment and human health. In order to quantitatively describe the water balance factors and transformation relations, the objective of this article is to develop a distributed hydrologic model that is capable of simulating the surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) in irrigation areas. The model can be used as a tool for evaluating the long-term effects of water resource management. By coupling the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and MODFLOW models, a comprehensive hydrological model integrating SW and GW is constructed. The hydrologic response units for the SWAT model are exchanged with cells in the MODFLOW model. Taking the Heihe River Basin as the study area, 10 years of historical data are used to conduct an extensive sensitivity analysis on model parameters. The developed model is run for a 40-year prediction period. The application of the developed coupling model shows that since the construction of the Heihe reservoir, the average GW level in the study area has declined by 6.05 m. The model can accurately simulate and predict the dynamic changes in SW and GW in the downstream irrigation area of Heihe River Basin and provide a scientific basis for water management in an irrigation district.

Modeling and assessing agro-hydrological processes and irrigation water saving in the middle Heihe River basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 211 ◽  
pp. 152-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Xu ◽  
Yao Jiang ◽  
Minghuan Liu ◽  
Quanzhong Huang ◽  
Guanhua Huang
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Saving ◽  
Heihe River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Heihe River

scholarly journals Assessing Impacts of Climate Variability and Reforestation Activities on Water Resources in the Headwaters of the Segura River Basin (SE Spain)

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Senent-Aparicio ◽  
Sitian Liu ◽  
Julio Pérez-Sánchez ◽  
Adrián López-Ballesteros ◽  
Patricia Jimeno-Sáez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Se Spain ◽  
Monthly Streamflow ◽  
Agricultural Areas ◽  
Water Assessment

Climate change and the land-use and land-cover changes (LULC) resulting from anthropic activity are important factors in the degradation of an ecosystem and in the availability of a basin’s water resources. To know how these activities affect the quantity of the water resources of basins, such as the Segura River Basin, is of vital importance. In this work, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used for the study of the abovementioned impacts. The model was validated by obtaining a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 0.88 and a percent bias (PBIAS) of 17.23%, indicating that SWAT accurately replicated monthly streamflow. Next, land-use maps for the years of 1956 and 2007 were used to establish a series of scenarios that allowed us to evaluate the effects of these activities on both joint and individual water resources. A reforestation plan applied in the basin during the 1970s caused that the forest area had almost doubled, whereas the agricultural areas and shrubland had been reduced by one-third. These modifications, together with the effect of climate change, have led to a decrease of 26.3% in the quantity of generated water resources, not only due to climate change but also due to the increase in forest area.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document