The Impact of Socio-Economic Factors on Sediment Load: A Case Study of the Yanhe River Watershed

Abstract

Under the influence of climate change and human activities, sediment load in rivers has changed significantly, which has a profound impact on the stability of ecosystems and the sustainable development of human beings. Taking the Yanhe River watershed as a case, this paper expounds the dynamic relationship among the Grain for Green Project, social and economic development, population migration, and sediment transport. The variability of sediment load was detected by Pettitt test, the double cumulative curve method, and the regression analysis method, and the effects of climate and human activities on sediment load were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that 1) from 1956 to 2016, the precipitation of Yanhe River watershed rose slightly in the past 10 years, but the sediment load decreased significantly; 1996 was identified as the catastrophic year of the study period, when the contribution of climate change and human activity to reduced sediment load was 14.1% and 85.9%, respectively. 2) The Grain for Green Project increased the vegetation coverage of the study area from 40.6% to 78.5%. 3) The proportion of agricultural GDP in total GDP decreased from 52.26% to 7.3%, and the proportion of agricultural GDP was positively correlated with sediment transport and cultivated land area (p < 0.01). 4) Population migration resulted in the urbanization rate reaching 40.23%, and the urbanization rate is negatively correlated with sediment load and cultivated land area (p < 0.01), while the cultivated land area is positively correlated with sediment load (p < 0.01). The decrease of cultivated land area makes the sediment load gradually decrease. Therefore, socio-economic factors promote the sustainable development of the river basin.

Agriculture Land Use Change and Demographic Change in Response to Decline Suspended Sediment in Južna Morava River Basin (Serbia)

“…Human activities in the basin were directly responsible for 89% of reduction in sediment load. These results are consistent with previous research, which has indicated the dominance of human impact on sediment reduction in rivers [52][53][54][55][66][67][68][69][70]. The effect of urbanization in modern conditions is absorbed by even the most remote villages and, thus, an increasing amount of rural population accepts the values of urban areas [34].…”

“…The method uses linear regression analysis of cumulative precipitation, water discharge, and suspended sediment load time-series data. The application of this method has been described in many studies [51][52][53][54][55]. In this study, identifying the baseline period was one of the most important steps in the process.…”

“…Both methods have been widely recommended and have been generally applied in hydrological and meteorological data analyses. Details of the MK and Pettitt tests can be found in many previous studies [51][52][53][54] and, thus, are not repeated here.…”

Investigation of crop evapotranspiration and irrigation water requirement in the lower Amu Darya River Basin, Central Asia

“…Irrigation is an important aspect of water resource management in inland river basins, and is critical to policy formulation in the agriculture sector. Water security in arid regions is extremely sensitive to climate change and increasing human activities (Timpane et al, 2017;Waseem et al, 2020;Zhong et al, 2020). It is closely tied to knowledge of the existing available water resources and the spatial-temporal variations of water demand from different water users (Masafu et al, 2016;Deng and Chen, 2017;Luo et al, 2017).…”

Comparative Assessment of Different Modelling Schemes and Their Applicability to Inland Small Reservoirs: A Central Europe Case Study

“…In recent decades, the impact of climate change and human activities on the global environment has become more and more obvious. In particular, it has affected the spatial and temporal distribution of surface water resources and various factors in the water cycle (runoff and sediment load) [2].…”