Water demand management: A case study of the Heihe River Basin in China

Chen, Yan; Zhang, Dunqiang; Sun, Yu; Liu, Xinai; Wang, Nian-Zhong; Savenije, Hubert

doi:10.1016/j.pce.2005.06.019

Cited by 139 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The basin spans an area from 96 • 42 to 102 • 00 E longitude and from 37 • 41 to 42 • 42 N latitude (Lu et al, 2003). The area covered by the basin is about 116 000 km 3 and lies east of the Shule River and west of the Shiyan River basin (Chen et al, 2005). The Heihe River basin upstream and middle reaches sit in a semiarid area, whereas the downstream reaches retain an arid climate all year round.…”

Section: Domain Of Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal effects of irrigation on land–atmosphere latent heat, sensible heat, and carbon fluxes in semiarid basin

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Irrigation, which constitutes ∼ 70 % of the total amount of freshwater consumed by the human population, is significantly impacting land-atmosphere fluxes. In this study, using the improved Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) with an active crop model, two high-resolution (∼ 1 km) simulations investigating the effects of irrigation on latent heat (LH), sensible heat (SH), and carbon fluxes (or net ecosystem exchange, NEE) from land to atmosphere in the Heihe River basin in northwestern China were conducted using a high-quality irrigation dataset compiled from 1981 to 2013. The model output and measurements from remote sensing demonstrated the capacity of the developed models to reproduce ecological and hydrological processes. The results revealed that the effects of irrigation on LH and SH are strongest during summer, with a LH increase of ∼ 100 W m −2 and a SH decrease of ∼ 60 W m −2 over intensely irrigated areas. However, the reactions are much weaker during spring and autumn when there is much less irrigation. When the irrigation rate is below 5 mm day −1 , the LH generally increases, whereas the SH decreases with growing irrigation rates. However, when the irrigation threshold is in excess of 5 mm day −1 , there is no accrued effect of irrigation on the LH and SH. Irrigation produces opposite effects to the NEE during spring and summer. During the spring, irrigation yields more discharged carbon from the land to the atmosphere, increasing the NEE value by 0.4-0.8 gC m −2 day −1 , while the summer irrigation favors crop fixing of carbon from atmospheric CO 2 , decreasing the NEE value by ∼ 0.8 gC m −2 day −1 . The repercussions of irrigation on land-atmosphere fluxes are not solely linked to the irrigation amount, and other parameters (especially the temperature) also control the effects of irrigation on LH, SH, and NEE.

show abstract

Section: Domain Of Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal effects of irrigation on land–atmosphere latent heat, sensible heat, and carbon fluxes in semiarid basin

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, the cost of exploiting new water resources is increasing especially where the groundwater table has fallen significantly, and massive reliance on irrigation has also produced adverse ecological outcomes [30]. It has become clear that a supply-side approach is insufficient to deal with the growing water demands [30,31]. Gradually, the management objective has shifted to stem the excessive rising demand by the more efficient use of irrigation water.…”

Section: Water-saving Irrigation Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s Water-Saving Irrigation Management System: Policy, Implementation, and Challenge

Yao

Zhao

2017

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:In response to the increased competition for water, the Chinese government has determined to promote water-saving irrigation (WSI) followed by a range of institutional arrangements and policy goals. Three management mechanisms are analyzed in this study in terms of effectiveness, including the top-down regulation mechanism using direct control or economic instruments, the design-bid funding mechanism mobilizing local governments by competitive grants program, and the bottom-up participation mechanism transferring more irrigation management responsibilities to end-users. Although the WSI management has achieved notable improvements by the combination of different mechanisms, conflicts among different policy goals, uneven distribution of financial resources, and insufficient participation from water users caused the difficulty in aligning stakeholders' incentives. Approaches are needed to enable sustainable management by coordinating incentives from different stakeholders in the management, as well as incorporating end water users to assist decision-making.

show abstract

“…HRB is the second largest endorheic river basin in China and is agriculturally intensive. In the late 1990s, the growing irrigation in the Middle HRB (MHRB) significantly decreased the streamflow available for the Lower HRB (LHRB) and therefore deteriorated the ecological conditions [15][16][17][18]. To protect the fragile ecosystems in the Lower HRB, the central government restricted the surface water diversion since 2000 in the Middle HRB [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Joint Operation of Surface Water and Groundwater Reservoirs to Address Water Conflicts in Arid Regions: An Integrated Modeling Study

Tian

Xiong

et al. 2018

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the basin scale, the operation of surface water reservoirs rarely takes groundwater aquifers into consideration, which can also be regarded as reservoirs underground. This study investigates the impact of reservoir operation on the water cycle and evaluates the effect of the joint operation of surface water and groundwater reservoirs on the water conflict in arid regions through an integrated modeling approach. The Heihe River Basin (HRB) in northwestern China is selected as the study area. Our results show that the ecological operational strategies of a reservoir under construction in the upper HRB have a direct impact on the agricultural water uses and consequently affect other hydrological processes. The ecological operation strategy with a smaller water release and a longer duration is beneficial to securing the environmental flow towards the downstream area and to replenishing aquifers. With the joint operation of surface water and groundwater reservoirs, a balance among the agriculture water need, the groundwater sustainability in the Middle HRB and the ecological water need in the Lower HRB can be flexibly achieved. However, the joint operation can hardly improve the three aspects simultaneously. To resolve the water conflict in HRB, additional engineering and/or policy measures are desired.

show abstract

Water demand management: A case study of the Heihe River Basin in China

Cited by 139 publications

References 2 publications

Seasonal effects of irrigation on land–atmosphere latent heat, sensible heat, and carbon fluxes in semiarid basin

Seasonal effects of irrigation on land–atmosphere latent heat, sensible heat, and carbon fluxes in semiarid basin

China’s Water-Saving Irrigation Management System: Policy, Implementation, and Challenge

Joint Operation of Surface Water and Groundwater Reservoirs to Address Water Conflicts in Arid Regions: An Integrated Modeling Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About