Assessing ecological land use and water demand of river systems: a case study in Luanhe River, North China

Abstract

Abstract. Economic and social development has greatly increased ecological water demand and modified land use of river systems worldwide, causing overall degradation of many of these systems. In this study, theoretical and technical frameworks for regionalization on the eco-environmental function of river systems are formulated and applied to the Luanhe River system. Based on its eco-environmental functions, this river can be regionalized into four types of firstclass functional areas: ecological preservation areas, habitat restoration areas, ecological buffer areas and development and utilization areas. Considering the overall ecoenvironmental functions, we assessed the ecological land use of the Luanhe River system. The total area of basic ecological land use is 876.98 km 2 ; the restrictive ecological land use is 1745.52 km 2 ; ecological land use of the river system returned from farmland is 284.25 km 2 ; and that returned from construction land is 17.35 km 2 . The average minimum ecological flow of mainstreams in upper and middle reaches of the Luanhe River is 4.896 m 3 s −1 based on the habitat method. And the recommended minimum and suitable annual ecological water demand of channels in the lower reaches are 391 million m 3 and 819.5 million m 3 , respectively. The evaporation and seepage consumption and vegetation consumption in riparian zones of the Luanhe River system are approximately 132.6 million m 3 and 145.3 million m 3 per year, respectively. Our results suggest that is crucial to regulate the instream ecological water use of the Luanhe River's mainstream starting from the Panjiakou-Daheiting Reservoir system. We recommend accelerating ecological land-use planning and strengthening the regulation of ecological water use on this river system focusing on important lower reaches under the condition of competitive water demand.

Implications of Modelled Climate and Land Cover Changes on Runoff in the Middle Route of the South to North Water Transfer Project in China

“…In every year since 2000, the annual flow of the Luan River at Luanxian has been less than the 'suitable ecological water demand' of 8.2×10 8 m 3 suggested by Yan et al (2012), a minimum threshold thought to be suitable for maintenance of river health. It is worth noting that for this river Wang et al (2009) estimated a 'medium' annual environmental water requirement of 8.9×10 8 m 3 and an 'ideal' of 16.3×10 8 m 3 .…”

A review of methodologies and success indicators for coastal wetland restoration

“…To make the indicator system more feasible, a multi-level indicator system from high level to low level should be taken into account. Here we provide a proposed multi-level success indicator system (including goal, system, feature, class and indicator levels) for the restoration assessment of coastal estuarine wetlands affected by human disturbances (Table 1) based on the indicator system of ecosystem health assessment for rivers (Lin et al, 2006;Yan et al, 2012;Jin et al, 2011). Moreover, we incorporated the integrated functions and the multiple goals, multiple stages and multiple scales of wetland restoration into the indicator system.…”

Use of multiple indicators to assess the pollution condition of urban streams: a case study of Bloemspruit, Free State Province, South Africa

“…When a river has not been negatively impacted by human activities, the level of pollution remains relatively low. Such rivers are able to dilute pollutants, thereby protecting the biodiversity living within and around the river (Yan et al ., ). These rivers provide humans with a ready source of water for domestic purposes and serve as a source of food such as fish, clams, crayfish and other edible aquatic organisms.…”