地理学报

Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2018, Vol. 73 ›› Issue (5): 945-956.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201805013

• Earth Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The trends of streamflow and sediment and their driving factors in the middle reaches of the Yellow River

SUN Qian1(),YU Kunxia1(),LI Zhanbin1,2,LI Peng1,ZHANG Xiaoming3,GONG Junfu1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resources and Environment Ecology of MOE, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, China
    2. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dry-land Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, CAS and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
    3. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100048, China
  • Received:2017-05-26 Online:2018-05-03 Published:2018-05-03
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Program of China, No.2016YFC04 02407;National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.51509203, No.41330858

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Abstract:

As streamflow and sediment of the coarse sand area in the middle reaches of the Yellow River have experienced considerable change under the background of climate change and intensified human activities in recent years, it is of great importance to conduct research on their driving factors to predict future streamflow and sediment discharge of the Yellow River. We used annual precipitation, annual streamflow volume, and annual sediment discharge data from 15 hydrological stations located in the coarse sand area of the middle reaches of the Yellow River from 1956 to 2010. The Mann-Kendall trend test, Pettitt change point test, generalized additive model for location, scale, and shape model (GAMLSS), and comparison of cumulative slope change rate were applied to analyze the variation characteristics of these hydrological variables and to determine the driving factors of annual streamflow volume and annual sediment discharge. The results of the analyses are as follows: (1) The Mann-Kendall trend tests showed that annual precipitation demonstrated a non-significant decreasing trend at the 5% significance level, whereas annual streamflow volume and sediment discharge exhibited significant decreasing trends in the study area; (2) The Pettitt change point tests showed that the abrupt change of time-points for annual streamflow volume and sediment discharge occurred around 1972, 1985, and 1996; (3) The GAMLSS results indicated that the mean values of annual precipitation did not change with time, but the variance of annual precipitation showed a decreasing trend in all study areas; (4) The comparison of cumulative slope change rate showed that the influences of human activities on annual streamflow volume and sediment discharge were greater in the Kuye River basin than that in the Wuding River basin. Analyzing the driving factors of changes in annual streamflow volume and sediment discharge provides theoretical support for the rational allocation of water resources in the coarse sand area of the middle reaches of the Yellow River.

Key words: coarse sand area, the middle reaches of the Yellow River, variation of streamflow and sediment, GAMLSS model, comparison of cumulative slope change rate