Impact of climate change and human activities on runoff in the Weihe River Basin, China

Chang, Jianxia; Wang, Yimin; Istanbulluoglu, Erkan; Bai, Tao; Huang, Qiang; Yang, Dawen; Huang, Shengzhi

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.03.048

Cited by 208 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Numerous studies have quantified the impacts of climatic variation and human activities on runoff in the WRB [12,[37][38][39][40]. However, to our knowledge, only Zhao et al [41] have studied land cover change, investigating the effects of land cover change and climatic variability on green and blue water resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Impacts of Climate, Land Cover Change and Direct Human Activities on Runoff Variations in the Wei River Basin, China

Li¹,

Chang²,

Wang³

et al. 2016

Water

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Previous studies that quantified variations in runoff have mainly focused on the combined impacts of climate and human activities or climate and land cover change. Few have separated land cover change from human activities, which is critical for effective management of water resources. This study aims to investigate the impact of changing environmental conditions on runoff using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model; we examined three categories: climate, land cover change and direct human activities. The study area was the Wei River Basin, a typical arid to semi-arid basin that was divided into five sub-zones (UZ, MZ, DZ, JZ and BZ). Our results showed the following: (1) the calibrated SWAT model produced satisfactory monthly flow processes over the baseline period from 1978 to 1986; (2) compared to the baseline period, the impact of climatic variations decreased and the impact of direct human activities increased from the 1990s to the 2000s, while the impact of land cover change was generally stable; and (3) climatic variations were the main cause of runoff declines over the entire basin during the 1990s and in the UZ, MZ and JZ areas during the 2000s, while direct human activities were most important in the DZ and BZ areas during the 2000s.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Impacts of Climate, Land Cover Change and Direct Human Activities on Runoff Variations in the Wei River Basin, China

Li¹,

Chang²,

Wang³

et al. 2016

Water

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“…We further estimated the relative contributions of human activity and climate change to the hydrological response of the Weihe River Basin and determined that human activity has a greater impact on basin runoff than climate change factors. The percentages in change of runoff due to climate change were 36, 28, 53 and 10% in the 1970s, 1980s 1990s and 2000s, respectively (Chang et al, 2015). The seasonal changes in temperature and rainfall may have positive impacts on water quality.…”

Section: Contribution To the Shortage Of Water Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Warming: Does Northwest China Face a Stark Food Security Challenge?

Guoju¹

2016

Appl Ecol Env Res

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Abstract. China's economy may be vulnerable to climate change, and Northwest China is an area sensitive to climate change. This review paper summarizes the impacts of climate warming on crop production in typical arid and semi-arid areas of Northwest China. Over the last 50 years, the climate has undergone a series of changes, including higher temperatures, increased drought and warmer winters. The future climate will become warmer and drought will become more severe. This will result in accelerated crop growth, more damage by crop pests, degraded soil, a decline in rain resource utilization, serious effects on the crop growing environment, weakening of agricultural ecological system stability, increased fluctuation in grain yield, difficulty in adjusting crop planting structure, threatened food nutrition and security, increased grain production costs, and risk and uncertainty in grain security. Taking scientific measures to actively keep pace with climate change will be a key strategy for reducing grain security risks in Northwest China.

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“…The July and October runoff yields approximately 65% of the mean annual runoff. During the last 50 years, the runoff in Weihe River has dramatically decreased; principally in the late 1990s when the average was only 3.60 billion m³ compared to 6.20 billion m³ in the 1950s [22,23]. The mean annual sediment contribution of the Weihe River to the Yellow River is 390 billion kg, and in the flood season occurring between June-September it reaches approximately 90% of the mean annual sediment yield [4].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there was a strong decrease in runoff and sediment yield from 1996 to 2014, which is more pronounced from 1996 to 2002. Prior research has been conducted to explain the causes of decreasing runoff and sediment yield in the WRB [4,22,32]. These studies concluded that climate change, especially the variations in precipitation and anthropogenic activity, were the main culprits.…”

Section: Variations In Annual Runoff and Sedimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The data reveal a 300% decline in runoff and sediment yield from soil and water conservation programs from the 1970's to the 1990's relative to the 1960's. Water projects, such as reservoirs and dams, disturb the runoff by increasing the evaporation, the drinking water supply and the agricultural irrigation while Prior research has been conducted to explain the causes of decreasing runoff and sediment yield in the WRB [4,22,32]. These studies concluded that climate change, especially the variations in precipitation and anthropogenic activity, were the main culprits.…”

Section: Variations In Annual Runoff and Sedimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variations in the Runoff-Sediment Relationship of the Weihe River Basin Based on the Copula Function

Guo

Chang

Wang

et al. 2016

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This study investigates the runoff-sediment relationship (RSR) of the Weihe River, a sandy waterway originating from the Loess Plateau, and considers the potential variations in RSR under an evolving environment. The double mass curve method was used to investigate RSR inflection points at six hydrologic stations located in the Weihe River basin (WRB) spanning the period from 1956 to 2010. Because of its ability to accurately define nonlinear and asymmetric correlations between variables, the Copula function provided the joint probability distributions and revealed the joint probabilities of annual runoff and sediment yield through different periods. The results indicated: (1) The sediment yield and runoff exhibit decreasing trends, which was principally related to human activity such as soil and water conservation measures, water projects and industrial and domestic water use, (2) the RSR inflection points principally occurred around 1983 at the Weijiabu, Xianyang, Huaxian and Zhuangtou stations, whereas they were non-significant at the Linjiacun and Zhangjiashan stations. Changes in RSR are attributed to the irregular effect of human activity reducing the runoff and sediment output; and (3) the joint probability distributions of annual runoff and sediment yield varied under an evolving environment and were characterized by spatial variability, which is more evident in the mainstream areas of the Weihe River than in the tributary regions.

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Impact of climate change and human activities on runoff in the Weihe River Basin, China

Cited by 208 publications

References 42 publications

Spatiotemporal Impacts of Climate, Land Cover Change and Direct Human Activities on Runoff Variations in the Wei River Basin, China

Spatiotemporal Impacts of Climate, Land Cover Change and Direct Human Activities on Runoff Variations in the Wei River Basin, China

Climate Warming: Does Northwest China Face a Stark Food Security Challenge?

Variations in the Runoff-Sediment Relationship of the Weihe River Basin Based on the Copula Function

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