TY - JOUR
T1 - Disentangling the impacts of meteorological variability and human induced changes on hydrological responses and erosion in a hilly-gully watershed of the Chinese Loess Plateau
AU - Wu, Jinfeng
AU - Nunes, João Pedro
AU - Baartman, Jantiene E.M.
AU - Yang, Dawen
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - China's Loess Plateau remains one of the most serious water erosion areas on Earth, while runoff and sediments of the Yellow River continue to decrease due to soil and water conservation (SWC) measures. Besides, climate conditions are dynamic. A total of 197 rainfall-runoff events from 1965 to 2020 in the Huangfuchuan catchment, which were divided into 3 sub-periods (P0: 1965 – 1982 limited measures; P1: 1983–1998 only dams and P2: 1999–2020 dams and revegetation), were selected to reveal the differences and mechanisms of runoff generation and sediment dynamics. The results show that: 1) anthropogenic activities played a leading role in water and sediment reduction; 2) infiltration-excess overland flow during the first two periods was dominant mechanism, but the results imply a potential shift towards saturation-excess overland flow occurring more often during P2; 3) the studied system, in a highly erodible region, is transport-limited; 4) sediment connectivity is reduced noticeably at the catchment scale, in which the decrease in index of connectivity (IC) values mainly resulted from the increase in proportion of the most disconnected areas of the catchment, especially in P2. These findings can help towards a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the changes in sediment dynamics, which can be applied to develop and implement sustainable water and soil conservation planning in the local or other similar areas. Besides this knowledge is very important for improving hydrological and sedimentological models in order to forecast the effects of human induced changes.
AB - China's Loess Plateau remains one of the most serious water erosion areas on Earth, while runoff and sediments of the Yellow River continue to decrease due to soil and water conservation (SWC) measures. Besides, climate conditions are dynamic. A total of 197 rainfall-runoff events from 1965 to 2020 in the Huangfuchuan catchment, which were divided into 3 sub-periods (P0: 1965 – 1982 limited measures; P1: 1983–1998 only dams and P2: 1999–2020 dams and revegetation), were selected to reveal the differences and mechanisms of runoff generation and sediment dynamics. The results show that: 1) anthropogenic activities played a leading role in water and sediment reduction; 2) infiltration-excess overland flow during the first two periods was dominant mechanism, but the results imply a potential shift towards saturation-excess overland flow occurring more often during P2; 3) the studied system, in a highly erodible region, is transport-limited; 4) sediment connectivity is reduced noticeably at the catchment scale, in which the decrease in index of connectivity (IC) values mainly resulted from the increase in proportion of the most disconnected areas of the catchment, especially in P2. These findings can help towards a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the changes in sediment dynamics, which can be applied to develop and implement sustainable water and soil conservation planning in the local or other similar areas. Besides this knowledge is very important for improving hydrological and sedimentological models in order to forecast the effects of human induced changes.
KW - Check dams
KW - Index of connectivity
KW - Revegetation
KW - Runoff events
KW - Sediment transport
U2 - 10.1016/j.catena.2023.107478
DO - 10.1016/j.catena.2023.107478
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85171545777
SN - 0341-8162
VL - 233
JO - Catena
JF - Catena
M1 - 107478
ER -