scholarly journals Impact of LUCC on Streamflow using the SWAT Model over the Wei River Basin on the Loess Plateau of China

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Wang ◽  
Fubao Sun
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
Soil Flow ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

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.

scholarly journals Impact of LUCC on streamflow based on the SWAT model over the Wei River basin on the Loess Plateau in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1929-1945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Wang ◽  
Fubao Sun ◽  
Jun Xia ◽  
Wenbin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
Soil Flow ◽  
Wei River

Abstract. Under the Grain for Green Project in China, vegetation recovery construction has been widely implemented on the Loess Plateau for the purpose of soil and water conservation. Now it is becoming controversial whether the recovery construction involving vegetation, particularly forest, is reducing the streamflow in the rivers of the Yellow River basin. In this study, we chose the Wei River, the largest branch of the Yellow River, with revegetated construction area 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 LUCC (land use and land cover change) on the streamflow, we firstly use two observed land use maps from 1980 and 2005 that are based on national land survey statistics merged 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 is that the streamflow decreased on agricultural land but increased in forest areas. More specifically, the surface runoff, soil flow, and baseflow all decreased on agricultural land, while the soil flow and baseflow of forest areas increased. To investigate that, we then designed five scenarios: (S1) the present land use (1980) and (S2) 10 %, (S3) 20 %, (S4) 40 %, and (S5) 100 % of agricultural land that was converted into mixed 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 construction has a positive impact on both soil flow and baseflow by compensating for reduced surface runoff, which leads to a slight increase in the streamflow in the Wei River with the mixed landscapes on the Loess Plateau that include earth–rock mountain area.

scholarly journals Comparison of Fish, Macroinvertebrates and Diatom Communities in Response to Environmental Variation in the Wei River Basin, China

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3422
Author(s):  
Linfei Liu ◽  
Zongxue Xu ◽  
Fan Yang ◽  
Xuwang Yin ◽  
Wei Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Aquatic Organisms ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

Land use changes usually lead to the deterioration of freshwater ecosystems and reduced biodiversity. Aquatic organisms are considered valuable indicators for reflecting the conditions of freshwater ecosystems. Understanding the relationship between organisms and land use type, as well as physiochemical conditions, is beneficial for the management, monitoring and restoration of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, fish, macroinvertebrates, and diatoms were investigated at 60 sampling sites in the Wei River basin from October 2012 to April 2013 to determine the relationships between the environment and aquatic organisms. The richness, abundance, Shannon diversity, evenness, Margalef diversity, and Simpson diversity were selected as biological indices for analyzing the correlation between these communities and environmental variables according to Pearson’s coefficient. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to analyze the relationship between the biotic communities and environmental variables. The results showed that three diatom indices were weakly correlated with chemical oxygen demand (COD), qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QH), and dissolved oxygen (DO). Four macroinvertebrate indices were associated with total phosphorus (TP) while total nitrogen (TN), and agricultural land (AL) had a significant influence on assemblages, suggesting that macroinvertebrates could respond to nutrient levels in the Wei River basin. All land use types had a strong effect on fish indices except AL, indicating that fish would be better used as indicators of spatial changes in the aquatic ecosystem. In conclusion, fish and macroinvertebrates have the potential for use in routine monitoring programs in the Wei River basin.

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
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Resources Management ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Transitional Zone ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

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.

scholarly journals Effect of land use on the seasonal variation of streamwater quality in the Wei River basin, China

2015 ◽  
Vol 368 ◽  
pp. 454-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Yu ◽  
Z. Xu ◽  
W. Wu ◽  
D. Zuo
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Water Quality Variables ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

Abstract. The temporal effect of land use on streamwater quality needs to be addressed for a better understanding of the complex relationship between land use and streamwater quality. In this study, GIS and Pearson correlation analysis were used to determine whether there were correlations of land-use types with streamwater quality at the sub-basin scale in the Wei River basin, China, during dry and rainy seasons in 2012. Temporal variation of these relations was observed, indicating that relationships between water quality variables and proportions of different land uses were weaker in the rainy season than that in the dry season. Comparing with other land uses, agriculture and urban lands had a stronger relationship with water quality variables in both the rainy and dry seasons. These results suggest that the aspect of temporal effects should be taken into account for better land-use management.

scholarly journals Analysis of baseflow index based hydrological model in Upper Wei River basin on the Loess Plateau in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 368 ◽  
pp. 403-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Liu ◽  
J. Chang ◽  
F. Tian ◽  
Q. Huang ◽  
X. Meng
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Hydrological Model ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Separation Method ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

Abstract. The baseflow is the drainage from the groundwater and soil water to the streamflow. As one important source of the streamflow, the baseflow could be the main source of the streamflow in the dry season. The Wei River, located in the semi-arid region of the Loess Plateau which is overlain by deep and loose soil, is the largest tributary of the Yellow River. According to former research, most of the streamflow in the dry season in the headwater of the Yellow River is baseflow. For the whole Yellow River basin, the baseflow is an important component of the streamflow, and accounts for about 44% of the annual runoff. Physically-based distributed hydrological models can simulate the runoff components separately, and are important tools to analyse the runoff components. Given the importance of the baseflow in the dry season for drought relief to support the ecological water requirement and irrigation, especially in the Wei River, the baseflow is analysed in this study. To investigate the baseflow in the Upper Wei River basin, a semi-distributed hydrological model based on a Representative Elementary Watershed approach (THREW) is employed to investigate the runoff generation process. To compare the results, an automatic baseflow separation method proposed by Arnold is used to separate the baseflow from the daily streamflow at Beidao hydrological station in Upper Wei River basin from 2001 to 2004. Based on the hydrological modelling and the Arnold separation method, the average annual baseflow index, i.e. the ratio of baseflow to the total runoff, is estimated as in the range of 0.30–0.36. The average intra-annual monthly baseflow index represents the seasonality of the baseflow due to the seasonality of the precipitation and evapotranspiration, and is also analysed.

scholarly journals Simulation of blue and green water resources in the Wei River basin, China

2014 ◽  
Vol 364 ◽  
pp. 486-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Xu ◽  
D. Zuo
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Flow ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

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.

scholarly journals Impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on stream flow and sediment discharge in the Wei River basin, China

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 961-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Gao ◽  
V. Geissen ◽  
C. J. Ritsema ◽  
X.-M. Mu ◽  
F. Wang
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Stream Flow ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Yellow River Basin ◽  
Sediment Discharge ◽  
The Wei River Basin ◽  
Double Mass ◽  
The Yellow River Basin ◽  
Wei River Basin ◽  
Wei River

Abstract. Reduced stream flow and increased sediment discharge are a major concern in the Yellow River basin of China, which supplies water for agriculture, industry and the growing populations located along the river. Similar concerns exist in the Wei River basin, which is the largest tributary of the Yellow River basin and comprises the highly eroded Loess Plateau. Better understanding of the drivers of stream flow and sediment discharge dynamics in the Wei River basin is needed for development of effective management strategies for the region and entire Yellow River basin. In this regard we analysed long-term trends for water and sediment discharge during the flood season in the Wei River basin, China. Stream flow and sediment discharge data for 1932 to 2008 from existing hydrological stations located in two subcatchments and at two points in the Wei River were analysed. Precipitation and air temperature data were analysed from corresponding meteorological stations. We identified change-points or transition years for the trends by the Pettitt method and, using double mass curves, we diagnosed whether they were caused by precipitation changes, human intervention, or both. We found significant decreasing trends for stream flow and sediment discharge during the flood season in both subcatchments and in the Wei River itself. Change-point analyses further revealed that transition years existed and that rapid decline in stream flow began in 1968 (P < 0.01), and that sediment discharge began in 1981 (P < 0.01) in the main river. In the two subcatchments, the transition years were 1985 (P < 0.01) and 1994 (P < 0.05) for water discharge, and 1978 and 1979 for sediment discharge (P < 0.05), respectively. The impact of precipitation or human activity on the reduction amount after the transition years was estimated by double mass curves of precipitation vs. stream flow (sediment). For reductions in stream flow and sediment discharge, the contribution rate of human activity was found to be 82.80 and 95.56%, respectively, and was significantly stronger than the contribution rate of precipitation. This evidence clearly suggests that, in the absence of significant decreases in precipitation, strategies for managing the region need to focus on human activities to control erosion without restricting stream flow.

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