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Impacts of climate variability and human activity on streamflow decrease in a sediment concentrated region in the Middle Yellow River

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Abstract

The Kuye River is the primary tributary located in the sediment concentrated regions in the Middle Yellow River in China. Significant decrease in streamflow has been observed in the Kuye River. The non-parametric Mann–Kendall test was applied to detect the change in annual streamflow for the period of 1960 to 2006. Mean annual streamflow in the Kuye River was 84.9 mm from 1960 to 1979 (period I), while it decreased to 58.2 mm from 1980 to 1998 (period II) and 20.5 mm from 1999 to 2006 (period III), respectively. The climate elasticity method and the hydrological modeling method were individually employed to assess the impact of climate variability and human activities on the decrease in streamflow. The results showed that climate variability was responsible for 29.6 and 27.1 % of the streamflow decrease from the climate elasticity method and the hydrological modeling method, respectively; while human activities accounted for 70.4 and 72.9 % of the streamflow decrease in period II. In period III, climate variability contributed 40.9 and 39.3 % of the streamflow decrease from the climate elasticity method and the hydrological modeling method, respectively; while human activities accounted for 59.1 and 60.7 % of the streamflow decrease. Therefore, human activities were the main reason of the streamflow decrease. Soil conservation measures (planting trees, improving pastures, building terraces and sediment-trapping dams) and coal mining led to the streamflow reduction in the Kuye River.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40971023) and National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB428406). We are very grateful to the reviewers for their constructive comments and thoughtful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Kang Liang, Changming Liu, Xiaomang Liu & Xianfang Song

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Kang Liang

  3. College of Water Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Changming Liu

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  1. Kang Liang
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Correspondence to Xiaomang Liu.

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Liang, K., Liu, C., Liu, X. et al. Impacts of climate variability and human activity on streamflow decrease in a sediment concentrated region in the Middle Yellow River. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 27, 1741–1749 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-013-0713-2

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