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Journal of Desert Research ›› 2021, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6): 223-234.DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2021.00118

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Multi-scale analysis of water system structure changes in the Yellow River Basin

Pan Yang(), Wei Liang(), Jianwu Yan, Siya Li, Zhiyang Lan   

  1. School of Geography and Tourism,Shaanxi Normal University,Xi’an 710119,China
  • Received:2021-08-03 Revised:2021-09-18 Online:2021-11-20 Published:2021-12-17
  • Contact: Wei Liang

Abstract:

Water system of river basin is the basis of supporting the socio-ecological system. Thus, understanding the structural change of water system is essential to reveal the evolution of regional system. To address this, we investigated the changing trends and structural evolutions of water system elements in the whole Yellow River basin and its secondary water resource divisions. Specifically, water system variables from 1998 to 2018, such as precipitation, evaporation, runoff, socio-economic water consumption, were analyzed using Mann-Kendall trend test and linear regression, in the perspective of nature-social water system. The results showed that precipitation and evaporation increased at a rate of 4.25 mm·yr-1 and 4.09 mm·yr-1 at the whole basin scale, respectively, in which the increase of evaporation was more significant. Runoff showed a significantly positive correlation with precipitation, and presented a decreasing-increasing-sharply decreasing trend during the whole period. The water consumption of social system was characterized by slow growth. In detail, the proportion of consumption in agricultural irrigation decreased at a rate of 0.50% per year, whereas the consumption of urban public, residential and ecological environment increased at the rate of 0.07%, 0.29% and 0.11%, respectively. Based on secondary divisions of water resources, the water system is highly heterogeneous, both spatially and temporally. Functions supported by the water systems have overloaded in Lanzhou-Toudaoguai and Huayuankou-Lijin section. Moreover, all the water system elements had co-evolution trend of different degree. In the humid region, evaporation had obvious lag phenomenon compared with precipitation, but the change trends were the same in the dry region. Water system elements in the Yellow River Basin had an obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Further development of population and economy may aggravate the regional water resources pressure in the future. This study provided an important reference for scientific regulation of water resources and high-quality development of the basin.

Key words: water system structure, water balance, socio-economic water consumption, Yellow River Basin

CLC Number: