Assessing the hydrological effect of the check dams in the Loess Plateau, China, by model simulations

Xu, Yuting; Fu, Bojie; He, Chunbo

doi:10.5194/hess-17-2185-2013

Cited by 120 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Because their primary purpose is for reducing sediment loss, these structures are generally designed without sluice gates. Consequently, most of the sediment from upstream hillslopes and gullies can be effectively trapped (Ran et al, 2013), resulting in a short life time for these dams because of rapid sediment 100 accumulation, generally less than 20 years (Xu et al, 2013). The resulting organic carbon (OC) burial is likely substantial, but remains to be quantified (Zhang et al, 2016), as does the altered CO2 exchange at the formed standing water surface.…”

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confidence: 99%

Riverine carbon export in the arid-semiarid Wuding River catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Ran¹,

Tian²,

Fang³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Riverine export of terrestrially-derived carbon represent a key component of the global carbon cycle. In this study we quantify the redistribution of riverine carbon within the 15Wuding catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Export of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon (DOC and DIC) exhibited pronounced spatial and temporal variability. While the DOC concentration was spatially comparable within the catchment, it was generally higher in spring and summer than in autumn, especially in the loess subcatchment. This reflects the enhanced organic matter inputs from agricultural tillage in spring and from terrestrial ecosystems in 20 summer. DIC concentration in the loess subcatchment is significantly higher than that in the sandy subcatchment, due largely to dissolution of carbonates that are abundant in loess. In addition, content of particulate organic carbon (POC) shown strong seasonal variability with low values in the wet season owing to input of subsurface soils by gully erosion. The downstream carbon flux was (7±1.9)×10 10 g C year 1 and dominated by DIC and POC. Total CO2 emissions 25 from water surface were (3.7±0.5)×10 10 g C year 1 . Radiocarbon analysis revealed that the degassed CO2 was 8101890 years old, indicating the release of old carbon previously stored in soil horizons. Riverine carbon export in the Wuding catchment has been greatly modified by check dams. Our estimate shows that carbon burial through sediment storage was (7.8±4.1)×10 10 g C year 1 , representing 42% of the total riverine carbon export from terrestrial ecosystems on an 30 annual basis ((18.5±4.5)×10 10 g C year 1 ). Moreover, the riverine carbon export accounted for 16% of the catchment NEP. It appears that the magnitude of carbon sink of terrestrial ecosystems in this arid-semiarid catchment has been significantly offset by riverine carbon export.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Riverine carbon export in the arid-semiarid Wuding River catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Ran¹,

Tian²,

Fang³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…Surface networks of rainwater harvesting structures are employed in seasonal climates worldwide, whether in cascading tank systems in southern India and Sri Lanka, or hillslope farm dams in Australia (Callow and Smettem, 2009;Roohi and Webb, 2012), northeastern Brazil (Lima Neto et al, 2011;Malveira et al, 2012;de Araújo and Medeiros, 2013;de Toledo et al, 2014), South Africa (Hughes and Mantel, 2010), the US Great Plains (Womack, 2012), and China (Xiankun, 2014;Xu et al, 2013). Capitalizing on these networks as proxy indicators of rainfall and streamflow variation, as in the Arkavathy, could prove a valuable approach to circumventing problems of data scarcity and characterizing changing hydrological conditions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial characterization of long-term hydrological change in the Arkavathy watershed adjacent to Bangalore, India

Penny¹,

Srinivasan²,

Dronova³

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The complexity and heterogeneity of human water use over large spatial areas and decadal timescales can impede the understanding of hydrological change, particularly in regions with sparse monitoring of the water cycle. In the Arkavathy watershed in southern India, surface water inflows to major reservoirs decreased over a 40-year period during which urbanization, groundwater depletion, modification of the river network, and changes in agricultural practices also occurred. These multiple, interacting drivers combined with limited hydrological monitoring make attribution of the causes of diminishing water resources in the watershed challenging and impede effective policy responses. To mitigate these challenges, we developed a novel, spatially distributed dataset to understand hydrological change by characterizing the residual trends in surface water extent that remain after controlling for precipitation variations and comparing the trends with historical land use maps to assess human drivers of change. Using an automated classification approach with subpixel unmixing, we classified water extent in nearly 1700 man-made lakes, or tanks, in Landsat images from 1973 to 2010. The classification results compared well with a reference dataset of water extent of tanks (R 2 = 0.95). We modeled the water extent of 42 clusters of tanks in a multiple regression on simple hydrological covariates (including precipitation) and time. Inter-annual variability in precipitation accounted for 63 % of the predicted variability in water extent. However, precipitation did not exhibit statistically significant trends in any part of the watershed. After controlling for precipitation variability, we found statistically significant temporal trends in water extent, both positive and negative, in 13 of the clusters. Based on a water balance argument, we inferred that these trends likely reflect a nonstationary relationship between precipitation and watershed runoff. Independently of precipitation, water extent increased in a region downstream of Bangalore, likely due to increased urban effluents, and declined in the northern portion of the Arkavathy. Comparison of the drying trends with land use indicated that they were most strongly associated with irrigated agriculture, sourced almost exclusively by groundwater. This suggests that groundwater abstraction was a major driver of hydrological change in this watershed. Disaggregating the watershed-scale hydrological response via remote sensing of surface water bodies over multiple decades yielded a spatially resolved characterization of hydrological change in an otherwise poorly monitored watershed. This approach presents an opportunity to understand hydrological change in heavily managed watersheds where surface water bodies integrate upstream runoff and can be delineated using satellite imagery.

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“…In China, check dams were constructed at the request of the residents without any long-term design schemes. The locations, storage capacities and outflow methods have not been inventoried and documented (Xu et al 2013). Lopez and Frances (2013) proposed a dimensionless reservoir index as one of the external covariates for nonstationary flood frequency analysis in continental Spanish rivers.…”

Section: Methods To Identify the Causes Of Nonstationaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Nonstationarity in Annual Maximum Flood Series and the Associations with Large-scale Climate Patterns and Human Activities

Liu

Chen

2014

Water Resour Manage

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Recent evidences of the impact of regional climate variability, coupled with the intensification of human activities, have led hydrologists to study flood regime without applying the hypothesis of stationarity. In this study, identification of nonstationarity was conducted in the form of both trend and change point in the mean of the annual maximum flood magnitudes, using Mann-Kendall and Pettitt test, respectively in Wangkuai reservoir watershed, China. The annual maximum flood series exhibited a significant decreasing trend, and the timing of change point was detected in 1979, which was consistent with the construction of large numbers of check dams and small hydraulic structures. A correlation test (Pearson correlation test) between large-scale oceanic-atmospheric patterns (El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), North Pacific Oscillation (NPO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Atlantic Oscillation (AO)) and annual maximum flood peaks was adopted to assess the climatic causes of nonstationary flood series. It was found that NPO, NAO and AO had significant correlations with flood peak, but ENSO and PDO could not explain the variations of flood peak. In the case of human-induced nonstationarity, we proposed 2 new indices to represent the effect of human activities on flood. The new indices were proposed based on the storage capacity and drainage area of the large numbers of check dams and small hydraulic structures which were estimated with no observed data. The identification of nonstationarity for flood series and the climatic and human-induced causes could provide useful information in nonstationary flood frequency analysis.

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Assessing the hydrological effect of the check dams in the Loess Plateau, China, by model simulations

Cited by 120 publications

References 18 publications

Riverine carbon export in the arid-semiarid Wuding River catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Riverine carbon export in the arid-semiarid Wuding River catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Spatial characterization of long-term hydrological change in the Arkavathy watershed adjacent to Bangalore, India

Evaluation of Nonstationarity in Annual Maximum Flood Series and the Associations with Large-scale Climate Patterns and Human Activities

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