Abstract. Climate change is now a major environmental and developmental issue, and one that will increase the challenge of sustainable water resources management. In order to assess the implications of climate change for water resources in China, we calibrated a Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model with a resolution of 50×50 km 2 using data from 125 well-gauged catchments. Based on similarities in climate conditions, soil texture and other variables, model parameters were transferred to other areas not covered by the calibrated catchments. Taking runoff in the period as a baseline, we studied the impact of climate change on runoff under three emissions scenarios, A2, B2 and A1B. Model findings indicate that annual runoff over China as a whole will probably increase by approximately 3-10 % by 2050, but with quite uneven spatial and temporal distribution. The prevailing pattern of "north dry and south wet" in China is likely to be exacerbated under global warming.
Global warming will have direct impacts on regional water resources by accelerating the hydrological cycle. Hydrological simulation is an important approach to studying climate change impacts. In this paper, a snowmelt-based water balance model (SWBM) was used to simulate the effect of climate change on runoff in the Kuye River catchment of the Loess Plateau, China. Results indicated that the SWBM is suitable for simulating monthly discharge into arid catchments. The response of runoff in the Kuye River catchment to climate change is nonlinear, and runoff is more sensitive to changes in precipitation than to changes in temperature. The projections indicated that the Kuye River catchment would undergo more flooding in the 2020s, and global warming would probably shorten the main flood season in the catchment, with greater discharge occurring in August. Although projected changes in annual runoff are uncertain, the possibilities of regional water shortages and regional flooding are essential issues that need to be fully considered.
The impacts of climate change on industrial water demand (IWD) directly affect IWD management. In this study, we propose a framework for evaluating different impacts of climate change on IWD by sector, considering both direct and indirect effects. Data from 34 industrial sectors in Hebei Province, China, showed that the impacts of climate change varied by sector, and IWD in 22 of the 34 sectors was affected, ranging from -15.11 to 37.36% under the average rates of change in precipitation and temperature. The corresponding volumetric change of IWD was between -31.148 and 141.890 million m3, considering the difference in the water demand scale between sectors. The overall impact of climate change on IWD gradually decreased from more than 12.8% to approximately 4.1% from 2007 to 2016 due to the substantial improvement of water use efficiency. The indirect effects caused by the total industrial output value offset about 60-50% of the direct growth impacts. By contrast, the increase in IWD caused by the rise in temperature accounted for nearly 90% of the change, whereas only approximately 10% was caused by the decrease in precipitation. In general, an industrial sector may be directly and indirectly affected by temperature and precipitation, and the different impacts may offset each other. This study provides evidence and explanations for the heterogeneity of climate change impacts, and the research results can provide information for regional industrial water resource managers to adapt to climate change.
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