Sediment and State in Imperial China: The Yellow River Watershed as an Earth System and a World System

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Mostern
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Change ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
The World ◽  
Fragile Environment ◽  
Imperial China

China’s Yellow River is the most sediment laden water course in the world today, but that came to be the case only about a thousand years ago. It is largely the result of agriculture and deforestation on the fragile environment of the loess plateau in the middle reaches of the watershed. This article demonstrates that the long term environmental degradation of the Yellow River was primarily anthropogenic, and furthermore, it explains how the spatial organization of state power in imperial China amplified the likelihood and consequences of landscape change.

scholarly journals Domestic water demand forecasting in the Yellow River basin under changing environment

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-388
Author(s):  
Xiao-jun Wang ◽  
Jian-yun Zhang ◽  
Shamsuddin Shahid ◽  
Lang Yu ◽  
Chen Xie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Yellow River Basin ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Domestic Water ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domestic Water Demand ◽  
The Yellow River Basin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a statistical-based model to forecast future domestic water demand in the context of climate change, population growth and technological development in Yellow River. Design/methodology/approach The model is developed through the analysis of the effects of climate variables and population on domestic water use in eight sub-basins of the Yellow River. The model is then used to forecast water demand under different environment change scenarios. Findings The model projected an increase in domestic water demand in the Yellow River basin in the range of 67.85 × 108 to 62.20 × 108 m3 in year 2020 and between 73.32 × 108 and 89.27 × 108 m3 in year 2030. The general circulation model Beijing Normal University-Earth System Model (BNU-ESM) predicted the highest increase in water demand in both 2020 and 2030, while Centre National de Recherches Meteorologiques Climate Model v.5 (CNRM-CM5) and Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate- Earth System (MIROC-ESM) projected the lowest increase in demand in 2020 and 2030, respectively. The fastest growth in water demand is found in the region where water demand is already very high, which may cause serious water shortage and conflicts among water users. Originality/value The simple regression-based domestic water demand model proposed in the study can be used for rapid evaluation of possible changes in domestic water demand due to environmental changes to aid in adaptation and mitigation planning.

Characteristics of bacterial community in the water and surface sediment of the Yellow River, China, the largest turbid river in the world

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 1894-1904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Xia ◽  
Xinghui Xia ◽  
Ting Liu ◽  
Lijuan Hu ◽  
Baotong Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Community ◽  
Surface Sediment ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
The World

scholarly journals Study on the influence of vegetation change on runoff generation mechanism in the Loess Plateau, China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueli Zhang ◽  
Yue Yu ◽  
CaiHong Hu ◽  
Jianhua Ping
Keyword(s):  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Overland Flow ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Generation Mechanism ◽  
Underlying Surface ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Related Factors

Abstract In recent years, the amount of water and sediment in the Yellow River Basin has dropped drastically. This paper selected 125 rainfall and flood data points from 1965 to 2015, combined hydrological methods and mathematical statistics to analyze the hydrological factors and runoff generation mechanism, and combined the underlying surface conditions of the Gushanchuan Basin. The characteristics of change revealed the temporal and spatial variation characteristics and related factors of the runoff generation mechanism in the basin. The results showed that the Gushanchuan Basin is still dominated by HOF runoff, but the runoff generation mechanism also has changed with changes in the underlying surface, which are reflected in increased runoff components, the reduced proportion of HOF runoff, and the increased proportion of saturation-excess overland flow (SOF) runoff and mixed runoff. We analyzed the variation law of underlying surface in the basin, which indicated that the increase in the forest grass area was the main factor affecting changes in the watershed runoff generation mechanism. This research will enable a deeper understanding of the runoff generation mechanism of the main soil erosion areas in the Loess Plateau, reveal variations in the runoff generation mechanism in the Yellow River.

scholarly journals Rainfall-runoff processes in the Loess Plateau, China: Temporal dynamics of event rainfall-runoff characteristics and diagnostic analysis of runoff generation patterns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Wu ◽  
Zhaoxi Zhang ◽  
Guodong Zhang ◽  
Shengqi Jian ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Overland Flow ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Separation Procedure ◽  
Runoff Coefficient ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
The Loess Plateau

Abstract. The Loess Plateau is the most erosion-prone area in China, while under large-scale ecological restoration runoff and sediments continue to decrease. This study examined the runoff generation mechanism at the catchment scale to understand the change in runoff generation. Six baseflow used to separation method were tested and the nonparametric simple smoothing method was seperating base flow. With the event runoff separation procedure, 340 rainfall–runoff events are selected in five typical catchments affected by significant human intervention in the Loess Plateau. Runoff characteristics, such as the event runoff coefficient, time scale, rise time, and peak discharge are studied on monthly and long-term scales. In catchments of Jialuhe, Chabagou and Gushanchuan with poor vegetation runoff response is strongly decided by rainfall intensity and is produced by Horton overland flow (HOF). While the mountainous catchments of Jingle and Zulihe runoff response is controlled by rainfall volume. The relation between runoff event characteristics and rainfall is complicated in Loess Plateau, where rainfall and underlying surface is significantly changing. The monthly of event characteristics is mostly controlled by rainfall characteristics. Long-term runoff coefficient experiences decreasing trend, while time scale trend is increasing. Land use changes lead to increasing catchment wetness display mostly strong reason in event characteristic response. According to our proposed framework for classifying dominant runoff generation patterns considering of hydrograph response time, discharge source, and flow paths, HOF runoff is still the dominant mechanism, but gradually shifts to Dunne overland flow (DOF) and combination runoff. We speculate that the reduction in runoff in the Yellow River is likely to be the dominant runoff mechanism changing.

scholarly journals Response of the parameters of excess infiltration and excess storage model to land use cover change

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuexiu Wen ◽  
Caihong Hu ◽  
Guodong Zhang ◽  
Shengqi Jian
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Overland Flow ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Infiltration Excess ◽  
Generation Mechanisms

AbstractThe Loess Plateau is the main source of water in Yellow River, China. After 1980s, the Yellow river water presented a significant reduction, what caused the decrease of the Yellow river discharge had been debated in academic circles. We proceeded with runoff generation mechanisms to explain this phenomenon. We built saturation excess runoff and infiltration excess runoff generation mechanisms for rainfall–runoff simulation in Jingle sub-basin of Fen River basin on the Loess Plateau, to reveal the influence of land use change on flood processes and studied the changes of model parameters under different underlying conditions. The results showed that the runoff generation mechanism was mainly infiltration-excess overland flow, but the flood events of saturation-excess overland flow had an increasing trend because of land use cover change (the increase of forestland and grassland areas and the reduction of cultivated land). Some of the model parameters had physical significances，such as water storage capacity (WM), infiltration capacity (f), evapotranspiration (CKE), soil permeability coefficient (k) and index of storage capacity distribution curve (n) showed increasing trends, and index of infiltration capacity distribution curve (m) showed a decreasing trend. The above results proved the changes of runoff generation mechanism from the perspective of model parameters in Jingle sub-basin, which can provide a new perspective for understanding the discharge reduction in the Yellow River basin.

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