Reservoir-Induced Hydrological Alterations Using Ecologically Related Hydrologic Metrics: Case Study in the Beijiang River, China

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities have a tremendous impact on water ecosystems worldwide, especially in China. To quantitatively evaluate the hydrological alteration connected with aquatic lives and river ecological risks, we took the Beijiang River located in South China as the case study and used ecosurplus (defined as ecological carrying capacity exceeding ecological consumption)/ecodeficit (defined as ecological consumption exceeding carrying capacity) and Indicators of Hydrological Alterations to evaluate hydrological changes. The Ecologically Relevant Hydrologic Indicators were employed to select the key indices of Indicators of Hydrological Alterations, and the eco-environmental water demand calculation provide an effective way for the reservoir operation. Results showed that: (1) High flows contributed more to the ecodeficit, while low flows contributed more to the ecosurplus; (2) the ecodeficit in some parts of the river basin might exceed the ecosurplus after reservoir construction, especially along the main stream; and (3) the determination of eco-environmental water demand is a feasible way for improving the environment by controlling reservoirs. The current study can help guide the optimization of hydrological operation in the basin toward making the ecosystem healthier and has potential to further provide a reference for other basins in terms of hydrological alterations driven by anthropogenic activities.

Changes in streamflow regimes and their responses to different soil and water conservation measures in the Loess Plateau watersheds, China

“…According to Figure 7, the low flow rate contributed more to the eco‐surplus, whereas the high flow rate contributed more to the eco‐deficit. These findings are similar to those of Du et al (2020).…”

Using Game Theory Algorithm to Identify Critical Watersheds based on Environmental Flow Components and Hydrological Indicators

“…DRGS b and PRGS b watersheds with 216 and 174 points, respectively, gained the rst ranks and were selected as the most critical watersheds in study area. However, in these watersheds in the pre-dam periods, BSA based on GT showed the lowest score and no critical condition was observed in these watersheds ( The box plot related to BSA points also showed that the highest range of changes (BSA = 5) was observed in the watersheds affected by the dam construction (Du et al, 2020;Villablanca et al, 2022) and even in DRGS b , the range of changes in BSA points was very low and con rmed the critical condition in this watershed. However, in the stations without the effect of the dam (DRGS a and PRGS a ), the range of changes in BSA scores was observed in low scores (1 to 2) (Fig.…”

Quantitative assessment of ecological operation effects based on flood pulses and ecology-economic coupling model: a case study of Three Gorges Reservoir, China

“…IHA has good applicability of hydrological data (water levels and flow) and is a quantitative index system for hydrological regime that is mature and widely used worldwide (Cheng et al 2019). It uses 33 indicators to reflect the hydrological regime of the river from 5 aspects: magnitude, duration, occurrence time, frequency and change rate (Du et al 2020). Referring to the selection principle and the ecological connotation of each indicator in IHA, we proposed 11 indicators to quantify the runoff from the base flow and the flood pulses, as shown in Table 3.…”

“…According to the flood pulse theory, pulses formed in the rising or falling flood is the main driving force for biological survival, ecosystem interaction and productivity . Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a quantitative analysis on flood pulses, which can be divided into indicator selection, sample division and degree of change assessment (Du et al 2020). The only recognized flood pulse index system is the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) (Cheng et al 2019).…”