Use of double mass curves in hydrologic benefit evaluations

Gao, Peng; Li, Pengfei; Zhao, Baili; Xu, Rong; Zhao, Guangju; Sun, Wenyi; Mu, Xingmin

doi:10.1002/hyp.11377

Cited by 105 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The double mass curve, which was first presented by Searcy and Hardison (), has been widely used to estimate the effects of precipitation and human activities on hydrological benefits in different basins around the world (Gao et al, ). In general, the double mass curves between precipitation and run‐off exhibit a straight line without the effects of human activities.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water balance equations and hydrological models are often used to quantitatively calculate the impacts of climate change and human activities, such as land use change, on run‐off. In general, these methods can provide relatively accurate results, although the operation of the model requires the input of a large amount of data and many parameters, which are difficult to obtain (Gao et al, ). In addition, these models are difficult to simulate at large scales, especially where data are insufficient.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Run‐off affected by climate and anthropogenic changes in a large semi‐arid river basin

Yang

Sun

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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A rapid reduction in run-off has been observed in the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin in recent decades. Understanding the contributions of climate change and human activities, such as vegetation restoration and water consumption, to surface water resource reduction has become urgent and very important for future regional planning. Here, we use attribution approaches to explore the effects of climate change and human activities on run-off over the past six decades. The results showed that the observed annual run-off at Tongguan station, which is located within the mainstream of the Yellow River, exhibited a significant decreasing trend of −0.69 mm year −1 (p < .01) and varied from −0.28 to −1.46 mm year −1 (p < .01) in the eight selected tributaries from 1960 to 2015. Two relatively abrupt changes in the double mass curves occurred around 1979 and 1999; compared with Period 1 (P1; 1960-1979), the average catchment run-off decreased 32% during Period 2 (P2 ; 1980-1999) and up to 49% during Period 3 (P3;. We calculated that approximately 29% of the reduction in the run-off during P2 and 18% during P3 were attributed to climate change. Increased surface water consumption resulted in effective run-off reduction, with relative contributions of approximately 27% and 28% during P2 and P3, respectively. With the implementation of the "Grain-for-Green" project, the vegetation coverage rapidly increased from 36% in P1 to 52% in P3 and reduced run-off by 35% during P3. These findings explain the run-off reduction and benefit water resource management in the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Run‐off affected by climate and anthropogenic changes in a large semi‐arid river basin

Yang

Sun

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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“…Physically-based hydrological models, especially distributed hydrological models, can describe spatial variability in land and climate by using spatially distributed soil and vegetation parameters and climate variables, and can account for physical mechanisms of CC and LUCC impacts on hydrological processes [6,31]. This study utilized a distributed physically based model to investigate the impacts of CC and LUCC on streamflow regime.Existing literature paid more attention to precipitation and temperature factors when evaluating impacts of CC on streamflow [10,32,33]. However, climate is much more than precipitation and temperature.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing literature paid more attention to precipitation and temperature factors when evaluating impacts of CC on streamflow [10,32,33]. However, climate is much more than precipitation and temperature.…”

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confidence: 99%

Impacts of Climate Change and Land Use/Cover Change on Streamflow in Beichuan River Basin in Qinghai Province, China

Liu

Cuo

Li³

et al. 2020

Water

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Climate change (CC) and land use/cover change (LUCC) are the main drivers of streamflow change. In this study, the effects of CC and LUCC on streamflow regime as well as their spatial variability were examined by using the Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model (DHSVM) for the Beichuan River Basin in the northeast Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that CC increased annual and maximum streamflow in the upstream but decreased them in the downstream. CC also enhanced minimum streamflow in the whole river basin and advanced the occurrence of daily minimum streamflow. Temperature change exerted greater influence on streamflow regime than wind speed change did in most situations, but the impact of wind speed on streamflow reflected the characteristics of accumulative effects, which may require more attention in future, especially in large river basins. As for LUCC, cropland expansion and reservoir operation were the primary reasons for streamflow reduction. Cropland expansion contributed more to annual mean streamflow change, whereas reservoir operation greatly altered monthly streamflow pattern and extreme streamflow. Reservoir regulation also postponed the timing of minimum streamflow and extended durations of average, high, and low streamflow. Spatially, CC and LUCC played predominant roles in the upstream and the downstream, respectively.Hydrological response to CC and LUCC at global or large basin scales help us to understand the general condition of the impacts [7-9]. However, significant spatiotemporal variations of CC and LUCC in different regions indicate that regional or local responses deviate from the general conditions. Further, understanding regional or local hydrological responses is especially relevant to everyday people's life, as the knowledge can be directly used in water resources management [10-16]. Regional or localized knowledge is especially important for the Tibetan Plateau, which hosts the numerous smalland meso-scale headwaters of large rivers in Asia, including the Yellow, the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Indus, the Salween, and the Tarim, [17][18][19][20].Quite a few studies on CC and LUCC impacts on hydrology have substantially sprung up in the last 50 years [7]. The earliest review articles examined the LUCC effects on the basis of paired catchment studies [21-23], but the approach was only suitable for small catchments (<10 km 2 ) that have uniform vegetation cover and the same climate, contributing little to water resource management, which usually covers varied land cover types and climate conditions [7]. Recent studies employed statistical methods [24][25][26] and hydrological models [10,17,20,27,28] to assess the impacts from both CC and LUCC. Statistical methods are simple and effective [29], but reveal few physical mechanisms. Moreover, this method is generally applied to describe interannual and interdecadal hydrological processes due to the foundation of equations based on annual or multi-year average [30]. Physically-based hydrological models, especially distributed hydrologi...

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“…In this study, DMC along with the linear regression lines were used to quantify the variation of streamflow and sediment discharge before and after the transition years, and further used to analyze the contribution rate of the driving forces of this variation [30]. The relative changes of total sediment discharge for the period after the transition years could be estimated by the equations fitted to the double curves before the transition years, which can be expressed as:…”

Section: Double Mass Curve To Detect the Impact Of Precipitation And mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on Streamflow and Sediment Discharge in the Ganjiang River Basin (1964–2013)

Guo

et al. 2019

Water

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National large-scale soil and water conservation controls on the Gangjiang River basin have been documented, but the effect of governance on regional watershed hydrology and how the main driving factors act have not been systematically studied yet. To do this, this study evaluated changing trends and detected transition years for both streamflow and sediment discharge using long-term historical records at seven hydrological stations in the Ganjiang River basin over the past 50 years. The double mass curve (DMC) method was used to quantify the effects of both climate change and human activities on hydrological regime shifts. The results showed that the distributions of precipitation, streamflow, and sediment discharge within a year are extremely uneven and mainly concentrated in the flood season of Jiangxi Province. None of the stations showed significant trends over time for either annual precipitation or streamflow, while the annual sediment discharge at most stations decreased significantly over time. The estimation of sediment discharge via DMC indicated that after the transition years, there were rapid reductions in sediment discharge at all hydrological stations, and the average decline degree of midstream and downstream were much larger than that of upstream. Human activities, especially the increase of vegetation cover and construction of large and medium-sized reservoirs, provided a significantly greater contribution to the reduction of sediment discharge than did precipitation changes. As a case study of river evolution under global change environment, this study could provide scientific basis for the control of soil erosion and the management of water resources in Ganjiang River, as well as for the related research of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River basin of China.

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Use of double mass curves in hydrologic benefit evaluations

Cited by 105 publications

References 32 publications

Run‐off affected by climate and anthropogenic changes in a large semi‐arid river basin

Run‐off affected by climate and anthropogenic changes in a large semi‐arid river basin

Impacts of Climate Change and Land Use/Cover Change on Streamflow in Beichuan River Basin in Qinghai Province, China

Assessing Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on Streamflow and Sediment Discharge in the Ganjiang River Basin (1964–2013)

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