Eco-Hydrological Requirements in Arid and Semiarid Regions: Case Study of the Yellow River in China
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 6
Abstract
The eco-hydrological requirements of a river are related to the health of the river. In recent years, changing climate and intensifying human activities have further aggravated water problems in the Yellow River. Considering hydrological changes, this study addressed the ecological water requirements of the Yellow River basin, wherein the threshold ecological water requirement corresponded to the streamflow with the largest occurrence probability determined by the Pearson Type III distribution. Instream flow ± one standard deviation was adopted as the water resource management target and abrupt changes in streamflow were detected by using the Mann-Whitney test. The results of the analysis indicated that: (1) the annual flow of the Yellow River substantially decreased after abrupt changes and the probability significantly dropped that the amount of annual streamflow satisfied the ecological instream flow requirement; and (2) the water resource management target was satisfied well after th echange point only at the Tangnaihai station, located in the upper Yellow River basin. From the upper to the lower Yellow River basins, the probability has dramatically decreased that the ecological water requirement target is satisfied. Therefore, the Yellow River basin will likely face increasingly serious water problems, particularly in the middle and lower parts.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 41071020, 50839005), Project of the Guangdong Science and Technology Department (Grant No.: 2010B050800001), the Program for Outstanding Young Teachers of the Sun Yat-sen University (Grant No.: 2009-37000-1132381), the Key National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 50839005), a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (CUHK405308) and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Grant No.: 2009-37000-4203384). Cordial gratitude should be extended to the editor, Jessica Freeman, and the anonymous reviewers for their pertinent and professional comments which greatly help to improve the quality of this manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 6 • June 2013
Pages: 689 - 697
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 18, 2011
Accepted: May 22, 2012
Published online: May 24, 2012
Published in print: Jun 1, 2013
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