Abstract
The rivers in southern Zhejiang Province are typical mountainous rivers that are impacted by various climatic and anthropogenic factors. In this study, the annual, seasonal and flood peak variations of water and sediment discharge, as well as their causes, are investigated using the Mann-Kendall test, accumulative curve, and wavelet analysis based on data from six hydrological stations and nine meteorological stations over the past 40–60 years. Insignificant increasing trends, occur in the water discharge for most rivers due to increased precipitation, while the observed significant decrease in the sediment load can be attributed to anthropogenic impacts (i.e., reservoirs constructions, sand mining). The greatest decrease in sediment load (64%) occurred in the Feiyun River (1968–2019). The water and sediment discharge during the plum rain season (April–June) and typhoon seasons (July–September) collectively account for ~75 and ~90% of the annual totals, respectively. Due to the differing rainfall patterns between these two seasons, the maximum monthly water discharge occurs in the plum rain season in most rivers. Meanwhile, the maximum flood peak discharge and daily sediment load, as well as the maximum monthly and daily sediment loads, occur more frequently during the typhoon season. Owing to reservoir construction, the maximum flood peak discharge and daily sediment discharge decreased by 13–50 and 18–74%, respectively, and the intra-annual distribution of water discharge became uniform. The dominant periodicities of annual water and sediment discharge for most rivers are ~22 years under the impacts of precipitation, while those in the Feiyun River are ~13 years due to human activities (the ratio of the total storage capacity and annual average water discharge reaches 84%).
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the Hydrologic Management Center of Zhejiang, the Water Resources Bureau of Taizhou, and the Hydrological Management Center of Lishui for providing gauge station data. We thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for providing language assistance.
Funding
This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number LY18D060006).
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Zhang, W.Y., Lu, S.S. & Wang, D.L. Multi-Timescale Variations in Water and Sediment Discharge of Mountainous Rivers in Southern Zhejiang Province, China. Water Resour 50, 231–241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807823020161
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807823020161