Hydrological and water cycle processes of inland river basins in the arid region of Northwest China

Chen, Yaning; Li, Baofu; Fan, Yuting; Sun, Congjian; Fang, Gonghuan

doi:10.1007/s40333-019-0050-5

Cited by 71 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Therefore, in this work, MOD10A2 (acquired from Terra satellite in 2001-2016) and MYD10A2 (acquired from Aqua satellite in 2002-2016) products were chosen to analyze snow dynamics. As high-runoff and high-precipitation zones in the basin, alpine areas, especially in glacier areas, were much more likely to be disturbed by clouds than those in nonglacial areas despite the remarkable cloud-elimination effect [36,53]. Therefore, we further optimized the cloud-elimination effect by combining the satellite images of the MOD10A2 and MYD10A2 snow products and introducing glacier boundaries to improve the usability of the satellite images [54].…”

Section: Snow-cover Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow-Cover Area and Runoff Variation under Climate Change in the West Kunlun Mountains

Yan

Zhao

et al. 2019

Water

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In recent years, the climate in the arid region of Northwest China has become warmer and wetter; however, glaciers in the north slope of the West Kunlun Mountains (NSWKM) show no obvious recession, and river flow is decreasing or stable. This contrasts with the prevalent response of glaciers to climate change, which is recession and initial increase in glacier discharge followed by decline as retreat continues. We comparatively analyzed multi-timescale variation in temperature–precipitation–snow cover-runoff in the Yarkant River Basin (YRK), Karakax River Basin (KRK), Yurungkax River Basin (YUK), and Keriya River Basin (KRY) in the NSWKM. The Mann–Kendall trend and the mutation–detection method were applied to data obtained from an observation station over the last 60 years (1957–2017) and MODIS snow data (2001–2016). NSWKM temperature and precipitation have continued to increase for nearly 60 years at a mean rate of 0.26 °C/decade and 5.50 mm/decade, respectively, with the most obvious trend (R2 > 0.82) attributed to the KRK and YUK. Regarding changes in the average snow-cover fraction (SCF): YUK (SCF = 44.14%) > YRK (SCF = 38.73%) > KRY (SCF = 33.42%) > KRK (SCF = 33.40%). Between them, the YRK and YUK had decreasing SCA values (slope < −15.39), while the KRK and KRY had increasing SCA values (slope > 1.87). In seasonal variation, the SCF of the three of the basins reaches the maximum value in spring, with the most significant performance in YUK (SCF = 26.4%), except for YRK where SCF in spring was lower than that in winter (−2.6%). The runoff depth of all river basins presented an increasing trend, with the greatest value appearing in the YRK (5.78 mm/decade), and the least value in the YUK (1.58 mm/decade). With the runoff response to climate change, temperature was the main influencing factor of annual and monthly (summer) runoff variations in the YRK, which is consistent with the runoff-generation rule of rivers in arid areas, which mainly rely on ice and snow melt for water supply. However, this rule was not consistent for the YUK and KRK, as it was disturbed by other factors (e.g., slope and slope direction) during runoff generation, resulting in disruptions of their relationship with runoff. This research promotes the study of the response of cold and arid alpine regions to global change and thus better serve regional water resources management.

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Section: Snow-cover Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow-Cover Area and Runoff Variation under Climate Change in the West Kunlun Mountains

Yan

Zhao

et al. 2019

Water

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“…The scarcity, irreplaceability and imbalance of water resources in spatial and temporal distributions fundamentally restrict the speed of social-economic development in the oases of arid areas, which are inseparable from freshwater resources (Jiao et al, 2013;Gao et al, 2018). The amount of water consumption represents the developmental scale of regional oases (Liu et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2019). Prosperity or ruin of oases can be attributed to the abundance or lack of water, and many ancient civilizations on the Silk Road (such as Loulan and Niya) failed due to lack of water resources and over-exploitation of natural resources (Qin et al, 2012;Zhang, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prosperity or ruin of oases can be attributed to the abundance or lack of water, and many ancient civilizations on the Silk Road (such as Loulan and Niya) failed due to lack of water resources and over-exploitation of natural resources (Qin et al, 2012;Zhang, 2016). In addition, there are plenty of contemporary examples worldwide that regional environmental degradation in arid areas was caused by excessive water use, such as Aral Sea Basin, Heihe River Basin and Tarim River Basin (e.g., Liu et al, 2010;Zhang, 2016;Gao et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2019). Therefore, unreasonable exploitation and utilization of water resources are regarded as the main causes of environmental degradation in arid areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, the mechanism of transformation from the natural oasis to the artificial oasis and the influence of expansion of the artificial oasis on the natural oasis have not been revealed clearly. The increase of the water footprint indicates the expansion of the artificial oasis (Chen et al, 2019), and its influence on the natural oasis can be reflected by the variation of the ecological footprint. Understanding the development of the water and ecological footprints is essential to explore the mechanism between the dynamics of the natural and artificial oases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coupling analysis of social-economic water consumption and its effects on the arid environments in Xinjiang of China based on the water and ecological footprints

et al. 2020

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“…Hei River Basin (HRB) is the Chinese second largest inland river and is part of the Asia's water tower—the Qinghai‐Tibet plateau (Zhou et al, 2019). Recently, increased risk of water shortages has intensified the conflicts of water use between midstream and downstream (Chen, John, et al, 2015; Chen et al, 2019). The Ecological Water Diversion Project was implemented by Chinese government since 2000 to allocate streamflow reasonably to the midstream and downstream, which is effective in ecological restoration of the downstream (Cheng et al, 2014; Hu, Lu, Li, Wang, & Lu, 2015), whereas the continuous development of economic in midstream still need more water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rational Planning of Land Use Can Maintain Water Yield Without Damaging Ecological Stability in Upstream of Inland River: Case Study in the Hei River Basin of China

Zhang

et al. 2020

JGR Atmospheres

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Upstream inland rivers provide most of water resources for midstream and downstream in arid and semiarid regions. From the perspective of ecological rehabilitation, it is necessary to simultaneously ensure upstream streamflow while still maintaining economy-ecosystem balance in upstream. However, vegetation dynamics effects caused by ecological rehabilitation cannot be well evaluated in previous studies due to the sparseness of observations at regional scales. With increased availability of vegetation and hydrological data, it is now possible to explore the relationship between water yield and ecological balance affected by vegetation dynamics. This study takes Upper Hei River Basin, part of the Asia's water tower-the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, as an example and uses the Eagleson's ecohydrological model to explore the effects of vegetation dynamics on streamflow and ecology in growing seasons during 1992-2015. We compare scenarios with and without vegetation changes and find that there is limited evidence that ecological rehabilitation could enhance water yield. Approximately 51.31% of Upper Hei River Basin vegetation cover (M) tends to deviate from ecological optimization state compared to equilibrium vegetation cover (M eq). In order to explore ways to ensure streamflow and maintain ecology, different vegetation scenarios are simulated. Results show that on average, grazing in area where M is larger than M eq could increase streamflow by approximately 7.3%/year and planting trees in other area could increase streamflow by approximately 2.9%/year. Therefore, effective control on vegetation dynamics can simultaneously ensure streamflow and maintain ecological balance, which can also provide guidance and theoretical support for upstream inland river planning.

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Hydrological and water cycle processes of inland river basins in the arid region of Northwest China

Cited by 71 publications

References 90 publications

Snow-Cover Area and Runoff Variation under Climate Change in the West Kunlun Mountains

Snow-Cover Area and Runoff Variation under Climate Change in the West Kunlun Mountains

Coupling analysis of social-economic water consumption and its effects on the arid environments in Xinjiang of China based on the water and ecological footprints

Rational Planning of Land Use Can Maintain Water Yield Without Damaging Ecological Stability in Upstream of Inland River: Case Study in the Hei River Basin of China

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