scholarly journals Precipitation Trends and Alteration in Wei River Basin: Implication for Water Resources Management in the Transitional Zone between Plain and Loess Plateau, China

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2407
Author(s):  
Li ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Gong ◽  
Wei ◽  
Yang

Precipitation plays a critical role in water resources management, and trend changes and alterations thereof are crucial to regional or basin water security, disaster prevention, and ecological restoration under a changing environment. In order to explore the implications of precipitation variation for water resources management, taking the Wei River Basin (a transitional zone between the Guanzhong Plain and Loess Plateau) as an example, this paper proposes an index system, namely the index of precipitation alteration (IPA), to evaluate changes in precipitation and investigate their potential influence on water resources management. The system includes 17 indicators gained from observed daily rainfall, involving some structural precipitation indicators describing the precipitation patterns and some functional precipitation indicators influencing utilization of watershed water resources. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical test is employed to identify the IPA trend change, and range of variability approach is used to evaluate the variation of IPA. The analysis results in Wei River Basin show that IPA varies with different spatial and temporal distributions. Overall, although the annual total precipitation declined in the study area, the frequency of extreme events was increased during 1955–2012. In the face of severe climate change patterns, it is necessary to establish the precipitation index to evaluate the change of precipitation and to provide useful information for future precipitation assessments.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Wang ◽  
Fubao Sun

Abstract. Under the Grain for Green project in China, vegetation recovery constructions have been widely implemented on the Loess Plateau for the purpose of soil and water conservation. Now it becomes controversial whether the recovery constructions of vegetation, particularly forest, is reducing streamflow in rivers of the Yellow River Basin. In this study, we choose the Wei River, the largest branch of the Yellow River and implemented with revegetation constructions, as the study area. To do that, we apply the widely used Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model for the upper and middle reaches of the – Wei River basin. The SWAT model was forced with daily observed meteorological forcings (1960–2009), calibrated against daily streamflow for 1960–1969, validated for the period of 1970–1979 and used for analysis for 1980–2009. To investigate the impact of the LUCC (Land Use and land Cover Change) on the streamflow, we firstly use two observed land use maps of 1980 and 2005 that are based on national land survey statistics emerged with satellite observations. We found that the mean streamflow generated by using the 2005 land use map decreased in comparison with that using the 1980 one, with the same meteorological forcings. Of particular interest here, we found the streamflow decreased in agricultural land but increased in forest area. More specifically, the surface runoff, soil flow and baseflow all decreased in agricultural land, while the soil flow and baseflow of forest were increased. To investigate that, we then designed five scenarios including (S1) the present land use (1980), (S2) 10 %, (S3) 20 %, (S4) 40 % and (S5) 100 % of agricultural land was converted into forest. We found that the streamflow consistently increased with agricultural land converted into forest by about 7.4 mm per 10 %. Our modeling results suggest that forest recovery constructions have positive impact on both soil flow and base flow compensating reduced surface runoff, which leads to a slight increase in streamflow in the Wei River with mixed landscapes of Loess Plateau and earth-rock mountain.


Author(s):  
Z. Xu ◽  
D. Zuo

Abstract. The Wei River is the largest tributary of the Yellow River in China and it is suffering from water scarcity and water pollution. In order to quantify the amount of water resources in the study area, a hydrological modelling approach was applied by using SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool), calibrated and validated with SUFI-2 (Sequential Uncertainty Fitting program) based on river discharge in the Wei River basin (WRB). Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were also performed to improve the model performance. Water resources components of blue water flow, green water flow and green water storage were estimated at the HRU (Hydrological Response Unit) scales. Water resources in HRUs were also aggregated to sub-basins, river catchments, and then city/region scales for further analysis. The results showed that most parts of the WRB experienced a decrease in blue water resources between the 1960s and 2000s, with a minimum value in the 1990s. The decrease is particularly significant in the most southern part of the WRB (Guanzhong Plain), one of the most important grain production basements in China. Variations of green water flow and green water storage were relatively small on the spatial and temporal dimensions. This study provides strategic information for optimal utilization of water resources and planning of cultivating seasons in the Wei River basin.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (26) ◽  
pp. 3852-3863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangju Zhao ◽  
Xingmin Mu ◽  
Peng Tian ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Peng Gao

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 81-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bode ◽  
P. Evers ◽  
D.R. Albrecht

The Ruhr, with an average flow of 80.5 m3/s at its mouth, is a comparatively small tributary to the Rhine River that has to perform an important task: to secure the water supply of more than 5 million people and of the industry in the densely populated region north of the river. The complex water management system and network applied by the Ruhrverband in the natural Ruhr River Basin has been developed step by step, over decades since 1913. And from the beginning, its major goal has been to achieve optimal conditions for the people living in the region. For this purpose, a functional water supply and wastewater disposal infrastructure has been built up. The development of these structures required and still requires multi-dimensional planning and performance. Since the river serves as receiving water and at the same time as a source of drinking water, the above-standard efforts of Ruhrverband for cleaner water also help to conserve nature and wildlife. Ruhrverband has summed up its environmental awareness in the slogan: “For the people and for the environment”. This basic water philosophy, successfully applied to the Ruhr for more than 80 years, will be continued in accordance with the new European Water Framework Directive, enacted in 2000, which demands integrated water resources management in natural river basins, by including the good ecological status of surface waterbodies as an additional goal.


2019 ◽  
Vol 653 ◽  
pp. 1077-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingtong Gai ◽  
João P. Nunes ◽  
Jantiene E.M. Baartman ◽  
Hongming Zhang ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
...  

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