Streamflow response to climate variability and human activities in the upper catchment of the Yellow River Basin

ZHAO FangFang1,2, XU ZongXue1†, ZHANG Lu2 & ZUO DePeng1
1 Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
2 CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

Abstract

Both sensitivity-based method and simulation method are used to analyze the streamflow response to climate variability and human activities in the upper catchment of the Yellow River Basin (UYRB) in this study. The separation regime of effects from climate variability and human activities is investigated. Results show that the effect on streamflow is more sensitive to precipitation than potential evapotranspiration (PET). Effect of climate variability on streamflow estimated using the sensitiv-ity-based method is weak in the upper catchment of Jimai station, and strong in the upper catchment of Lanzhou station, where the climate effects accounted for about 50% of total streamflow changes. Ef-fects of human activities on streamflow accounted for about 40% in the UYRB, with weaker effects in the upper catchment of Tangnaihai station than those in the upper catchment of Lanzhou station. Both climate variability and human activities are main factors to affect the changes of streamflow in the UYRB.

Key Words: climate variability, human activities, Yellow River, streamflow, response