Responses of the water-yield ecosystem service to climate and land use change in Sancha River Basin, China

Water yield is an important ecosystem service, which is directly related to human welfare and affects the sustainable development. Using the integrated valuation of environmental services and tradeoffs model (InVEST model), we simulated the dynamic change of water yield in Qinghai lake watershed, Qinghai, China, and verified the simulation results. This paper emphatically explored how precipitation change and land use/land cover change (LUCC) affected the change of water yield on the spatial and temporal scales. Before 2004, the areas of cultivated land and unused land showed a dramatic increasing tendency, while forestland and water area presented a decreasing trend. After 2004 cultivated land changed slowly, unused land decreased. Grassland revealed a general trend of decline during 1977-2018, while built-up land basically presented a linear increase. The results show that water yield fluctuated and increased during 1977 . From 1977 to 2000, the mean water yield in each sub-watershed showed an increasing trend and afterward a decreasing one. After 2000, the sub-watersheds basically showed an increasing tendency. There was a strong correlation, with a correlation coefficient of 0.954 ** (** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level), between precipitation and water yield. Land use/land cover change can change the hydrological state of infiltration, evapotranspiration, and water retention. Meanwhile, the correlation between built-up land and water yield was the highest, with a correlation coefficient of 0.932, followed by forestland, with a correlation coefficient of 0.897. Through the analysis of different scenarios, we found that compared with land use/land cover change, precipitation played a more dominant role in affecting water yield.Water 2020, 12, 11 2 of 18 accuracy of the model output and the validation and evaluation of the performance of models in different circumstances and locations [11,12]. The input parameters have a great influence on the output results of the model. Many studies use sensitivity analysis methods to analyze the dependence between model output and variables [13,14], and in turn adjust model input parameters to find a set of optimal parameters. In fact, the input parameters of water yield module need to be calculated by physical equation or empirical equation [15,16]. So, we should make the input parameters more reasonable and accurate by standardizing the input data and taking full account of the regional characteristics and differences. In addition, the output results of the model are compared and verified through the observation data to evaluate the performance of the model without sensitive analysis methods and parameter adjustment, so as to provide a supporting evidence for us to use the model in the similar areas without measured data or insufficient data.Since the 1970s, many distributed hydrological models, including soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) [17], artificial intelligence for ecosystem services (ARIES) [18], integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade...

show abstract

“…Increases in built-up land led to increases in water yield. The conclusion was in line with the existing conclusions [53].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Assessing Changes of Water Yield in Qinghai Lake Watershed of China

Lian

Yuan

Wang

et al. 2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, Seidl [38] found that climate change may make the future supply services uncertain due to increased occurrences of fire and droughts in the Rocky Mountains. As well as studies of the Sancha River Basin, China, Lang [35] found that climate change accounted for 97.44% of the change in water yield. In recent years, global climate changes have been ongoing, many regions are experiencing the drying and warming trends, which increase the probability of desertification, water shortage and has placed considerable stress on the sustainable development of ecosystem service [39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Besides, climate change is also considered to be one of the significant driving factors [31][32][33], which affects ecosystem services through changing the hydrological process, moisture-energy distribution and carbon dioxide concentrations directly or indirectly. Many studies have been conducted to explore the impacts of climate change exerted on ecosystem services, such as rising temperature, decreasing precipitation and greenhouse gases emissions [34][35][36][37][38]. For example, Seidl [38] found that climate change may make the future supply services uncertain due to increased occurrences of fire and droughts in the Rocky Mountains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Land-Use and Climate Change on Ecosystem Service in Eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Sun

Zhang

et al. 2018

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Past years have witnessed the transformation of land use at a high frequency and a warmer and drier climate in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau region. To fully understand the spatial-temporal variation of ecosystem services against the changing global backdrop and to provide scientific ecosystem management measures for decision-making, a study was conducted to investigate the major ecosystem services: water yield, soil conservation and crop production from 1990 to 2015 in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau region. Three scenarios-climate change only, land use change only and both land use and climate change-were included in this study to analyze the response of ES to the above-mentioned global changes. The results show that (1) the total quantity of ES reduced in all the three scenarios, the annual ES change was scenarioII < scenarioIII < scenarioI and the periodical characteristics are present in this region; (2) the ES change in spatial distribution varied with different climate change patterns and land use transfer directions; (3) the ES composition of each ecosystem varied with different driving scenarios and different responses of the forest and wetland on climate change and land use changes were observed. Moreover, the trade-off under land use change and climate change respectively was observed in this study. Based on the results, we recommend that the local government take this trade-off and climate change into account when making decisions, continue with desertification control and improve the quality of grassland as well as forests-these efforts should enable us to achieve sustainable development of human beings and the natural ecosystem.

show abstract

“…Agricultural irrigation water nationally accounts for 60% of total water use, but more than 80% of total consumption in the arid and semi-arid areas of Northwest China [2,25]. Thus, accurate IWR c calculations are crucial to the regional social-economic and ecological sustainable development of these areas where water is scarce [37,39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Crop Irrigation Water Requirements in the Heihe River Basin, China

Liu

Song

Deng

2017

Water

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Agricultural expansion, population growth, rapid urbanization, and climate change have all significantly impacted global water supply and demand and have led to a number of negative consequences including ecological degradation and decreases in biodiversity, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. The agricultural sector consumes the most water globally; crop irrigation alone uses up more than 80% of available agricultural water. Thus, to maintain sustainable development of the global economy and ecosystems, it is crucial to effectively manage crop irrigation water. We focus on the arid and semi-arid Heihe River Basin (HRB), China, as a case study in this paper, extracting spatiotemporal information on the distribution of crop planting using multi-temporal Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (TM/ETM+) remote sensing (RS) images. We estimate the spatiotemporal crop irrigation water requirements (IWR c ) using the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Penman-Monteith method and reveal variations in IWR c . We also analyze the impact of changes in crop planting structure on IWR c and discuss strategies for the rational allocation of irrigation water as well as policies to alleviate imbalance between water supply and demand. The results of this study show that effective rainfall (ER) decreases upstream-to-downstream within the HRB, while crop evapotranspiration under standard conditions (ET c ) increases, leading to increasing spatial variation in IWR c from zero up to 150 mm and between 300 and 450 mm. Data show that between 2007 and 2012, annual mean ER decreased from 139.49 to 106.29 mm, while annual mean ET c increased from 483.87 to 500.38 mm, and annual mean IWR c increased from 339.95 to 370.11 mm. Data show that monthly mean IWR c initially increased before decreasing in concert with crop growth. The largest values for this index were recorded during the month of June; results show that IWR c for May and June decreased by 8.14 and 11.67 mm, respectively, while values for July increased by 5.75 mm between 2007 and 2012. These variations have helped to ease the temporal imbalance between water supply and demand. Mean IWR c values for oilseed rape, corn, barley, and other crops all increased over the study period, from 208. 43, 349.35, 229.26, and 352.85 mm, respectively, in 2007, to 241.81, 393.10, 251.17, and 378.86 mm, respectively, in 2012. At the same time, the mean IWR c of wheat decreased from 281.53 mm in 2007 to 266.69 mm in 2012. Mainly because of changes in planting structure, the total IWR c for the HRB in 2012 reached 2692.58 × 10 6 m 3 , an increase of 332.16 × 10 6 m 3 (14.07%) compared to 2007. Data show that 23.11% (76.77 × 10 6 m 3 ) of this increase is due to crop transfers, while the remaining 76.89% (255.39 × 10 6 m 3 ) is the result of the rapid expansion of cultivated land. Thus, to maintain both the sustainable development and ecological security of the HRB, it is crucial to efficiently manage and utilize agricultural water in light of spat...

show abstract

Responses of the water-yield ecosystem service to climate and land use change in Sancha River Basin, China

Cited by 123 publications

References 51 publications

Assessing Changes of Water Yield in Qinghai Lake Watershed of China

Assessing Changes of Water Yield in Qinghai Lake Watershed of China

Impacts of Land-Use and Climate Change on Ecosystem Service in Eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Crop Irrigation Water Requirements in the Heihe River Basin, China

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About