Cumulative sediment trapping by reservoirs in large river basins: A case study of the Yellow River basin

Ran, Lishan; Lu, Xixi; Xin, Zhouping; Yang, Xiankun

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2012.11.001

Cited by 83 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…To avoid construction damages from high flows and maintenance of high sedimentation rates, these dams need to take into account the total sediment loads. Hence, absolute values of annual discharge and sediment inflow are needed (Salas and Shin 1999;Ran et al 2013), which are currently lacking. Independent environmental impact assessment from openly available data is crucial, especially when social or ecological values are in conflict with hydropower construction (He et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Present to future sediment transport of the Brahmaputra River: reducing uncertainty in predictions and management

et al. 2016

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The Brahmaputra River in South Asia carries one of the world's highest sediment loads, and the sediment transport dynamics strongly affect the region's ecology and agriculture. However, present understanding of sediment conditions and dynamics is hindered by limited access to hydrological and geomorphological data, which impacts predictive models needed in management. We here synthesize reported peer-reviewed data relevant to sediment transport and perform a sensitivity analysis to identify sensitive and uncertain parameters, using the one-dimensional model HEC-RAS, considering both present and future climatic conditions. Results showed that there is considerable uncertainty in openly available estimates (260-720 Mt yr -1 ) of the annual sediment load for the Brahmaputra River at its downstream Bahadurabad gauging station (Bangladesh). This may aggravate scientific impact studies of planned power plant and reservoir construction in the region, as well as more general effects of ongoing land use change and climate change. We found that data scarcity on sediment grain size distribution, water discharge, and Manning's roughness coefficient had the strongest controls on the modelled sediment load. However, despite uncertainty in absolute loads, we showed that predicted relative changes, including a future increase in sediment load by about 40 % at Bahadurabad by 2075-2100, were consistent across multiple model simulations. Nevertheless, for the future scenarios we found that parameter uncertainty almost doubled for water discharge and river geometry, highlighting that improved information on these parameters could greatly advance the abilities to predict and manage current and future sediment dynamics in the Brahmaputra river basin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Present to future sediment transport of the Brahmaputra River: reducing uncertainty in predictions and management

et al. 2016

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“…J. Wang et al, 2007). Around 3000 dams have been constructed in the river basin, with > 110 000 silt check dams on the Loess Plateau to intercept sediment (Ran et al, 2013c). Water diversion for irrigation has increased steadily since the 1950s.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Particularly, most of the sediment was trapped in the large mainstem reservoirs (Table 2). Adding up the trapping contribution from the constructed silt check dams leads to a total sediment trapping of 40.3 ± 1.2 Gt (Ran et al, 2013c). In addition to sediment trapping by dams, a huge quantity of sediment would be deposited in channels or on floodplains.…”

Section: Sediment Deposition Within Dams and Channelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Erosion-induced massive organic carbon burial and carbon emission in the Yellow River basin, China

Ran

Xin

2014

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Soil erosion and terrestrial deposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) can potentially play a significant role in global carbon cycling. Assessing the redistribution of SOC during erosion and subsequent transport and burial is of critical importance. Using hydrological records of soil erosion and sediment load, and compiled organic carbon (OC) data, estimates of the eroded soils and OC induced by water in the Yellow River basin during the period 1950-2010 were assembled. The Yellow River basin has experienced intense soil erosion due to combined impact of natural process and human activity. Over the period, 134.2 ± 24.7 Gt of soils and 1.07 ± 0.15 Gt of OC have been eroded from hillslopes based on a soil erosion rate of 1.7-2.5 Gt yr −1 . Approximately 63 % of the eroded soils were deposited in the river system, while only 37 % were discharged into the ocean. For the OC budget, approximately 0.53 ± 0.21 Gt (49.5 %) was buried in the river system, 0.25 ± 0.14 Gt (23.5 %) was delivered into the ocean, and the remaining 0.289 ± 0.294 Gt (27 %) was decomposed during the erosion and transport processes. This validates the commonly held assumption that 20-40 % of the eroded OC would be oxidized after erosion. Erosion-induced OC redistribution on the landscape likely represented a carbon source, although a large proportion of OC was buried. In addition, about half of the terrestrially redeposited OC (49.4 %) was buried behind dams, revealing the importance of dam trapping in sequestering the eroded OC. Although several uncertainties need to be better constrained, the obtained budgetary results provide a means of assessing the redistribution of the eroded OC within the Yellow River basin. Human activities have significantly altered its redistribution pattern over the past decades.

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“…Generally, the effects of engineering works on runoff are significant and immediate, as they can more effectively prevent surface runoff, especially that with high flow with high suspended sediment concentration (SSC). However, the engineering projects will lose their effectiveness slowly and eventually be abandoned due to deposition (Ran et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2005Wang et al, , 2011Xu et al, 2004;Zheng et al, 2005). Hydrographic research showed that areas with extensive natural vegetation normally have little or no erosion, even if the geomorphology is hilly with steep slopes and gullies (Mi, 1982;Shi and Shao, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the effect of vegetation measures is usually shown with a lag of years for vegetation recovery and vegetation coverage area accumulation (Gao et al, 2012;Zheng et al, 2005). The effect of appropriate vegetation measures will become more and more significant as time goes by Ran et al (2013) and Zheng et al (2005). Considering the differences in mechanism and effect, knowledge of the sediment load changes is helpful in optimizing ecological restoration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did streamflow or suspended sediment concentration changes reduce sediment load in the middle reaches of the Yellow River?

Zhang

et al. 2017

Journal of Hydrology

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a b s t r a c tThe continuous ecological restoration of the Loess Plateau, which aims to reduce the sediment entering into the Yellow River, is known throughout the world for two strategies: the integrated soil conservation project that began in the 1970s, and the ''Grain for Green" project that began in the 1990s. However, the topic of whether the muddy water in the middle Yellow River run clearer remains debatable, and, in fact, response to the topic is reasonably well documented in regard to hydrological changes in the sediment source area. Six sub-catchments nested in the Beiluo River basin -one of the major sediment sources for the Yellow River -were selected, with data series ranging from 1957 to 2009. The Mann-Kendall and Pettitt tests were used for trend detection. A simple method was developed based on the distribution of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) versus water discharge. Using this method, we evaluated the quantities of sediment yield reduction attributed to streamflow and SSC changes due to the two strategies.The results showed that annual sediment yield in 5 out of 6 stations significantly decreased, with rates varying from À4 to À217 tÁkm À2 Áyr À1 . Significant decreases in daily and event streamflow and suspended sediment concentration were identified, especially at a high SSC (top 1-5%). During the integrated soil conservation period, the sediment yield was reduced mainly by decreases in high flow and high SSC conditions. In contrast, during the ''Grain for Green" period, sediment yield was reduced due to decreases in streamflow and SSC at all magnitudes. It was concluded that rainfall-sediment load dynamics have changed in the context of ecological restoration. Changes in both streamflow and the SSC-water discharge relationship induced the sediment yield reduction over time; in other words, the streamflow in the middle reaches of Yellow River became clearer during periods of ecological restoration. Moreover, the increased annual sediment yield at the Zhangcunyi station exposed a risk of increased erosion in areas where forests had been well preserved.

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Cumulative sediment trapping by reservoirs in large river basins: A case study of the Yellow River basin

Cited by 83 publications

References 48 publications

Present to future sediment transport of the Brahmaputra River: reducing uncertainty in predictions and management

Present to future sediment transport of the Brahmaputra River: reducing uncertainty in predictions and management

Erosion-induced massive organic carbon burial and carbon emission in the Yellow River basin, China

Did streamflow or suspended sediment concentration changes reduce sediment load in the middle reaches of the Yellow River?

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