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Impacts of climate variability and changes on domestic water use in the Yellow River Basin of China

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Abstract

We present a methodology for using a domestic water use time series that were obtained from Yellow River Conservancy Commission, together with the climatic records from the National Climate Center of China to evaluate the effects of climate variability on water use in the Yellow River Basin. A suit of seven Global Circulation Models (GCMs) were adopted to anticipate future climate patterns in the Yellow River. The historical records showed evidences of rises in temperature and subsequent rises in domestic water demand in the basin. For Upstream of Longyangxia region, the impact was the least, with only 0.0021 × 108 m3 for a temperature increase of 1 °C; while for Longyangxia-Lanzhou region, domestic water use was found to increase to 0.18 × 108 m3 when temperature increases 1 °C. Downstream of Huayuankou was the region with the most changes in temperature that gave the highest increase of 1.95 × 108 m3 in domestic water demand for 1 °C of change of temperature. Downstream of Huayuankou was identified as the most vulnerable area, where domestic water demand increases nearly by 42.2 % with 1 °C increase of temperature. Judging from the trends of temperature range, we concluded that future temperature in Yellow River Basin has an increasing tendency. This could worsen the existing issues of domestic water demand and even more to trigger high competition among different water-using sectors.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51309155, 41101030, 41330854), National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB951104 and 2010CB951103), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2013M530027), Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. Y513004), China water resource fee funded project (No. 1261530210034), Special Fund of State Key Laboratory of China (No. Y514010, Y515023), Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin (China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research Project No. IWHR-SKL-201515) and the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change (Grant No. ARCP2013-25NSY-Shahid) for providing financial support for this research. We are also thankful to anonymous reviewers and editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Xiao-jun Wang, Jian-yun Zhang, Tie-sheng Guan & Xu Zhang

  2. Research Center for Climate Change, Ministry of Water Resources, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Xiao-jun Wang, Jian-yun Zhang, Tie-sheng Guan & Xu Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Xiao-jun Wang

  4. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

    Shahid Shamsuddin

  5. Bureau of Comprehensive Development, Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing, 100053, China

    Ru-lin Oyang

  6. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Ru-lin Oyang

  7. Yellow River Conservancy Commission, Zhengzhou, 450004, China

    Jian-guo Xue

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  1. Xiao-jun Wang
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Wang, Xj., Zhang, Jy., Shamsuddin, S. et al. Impacts of climate variability and changes on domestic water use in the Yellow River Basin of China. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 22, 595–608 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-015-9689-1

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