Impact of Vegetation Change and Climate Variability on Runoff in the Jingchuan Watershed in the Loess Plateau of China

Runqi Zhao, Mingfang Zhang, Yiping Hou

2018

Abstract

Vegetation change and climate variability are often two main drivers for runoff variation. However, other factors such as human activities (e.g., road construction, agriculture, dams, urbanization) may also yield significant impact on runoff in populated watersheds. In this study, we selected the Jingchuan watershed, a sub-watershed of the Jing River Basin in the Loess Plateau as an example, to quantify runoff variation attributed to vegetation change, climate variability and other factors on runoff based on a single watershed approach. Firstly, we applied modified double mass curve (MDMC) and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) intervention to identify the impact of climate variability attributed to runoff variation. A significant breakpoint was detected in 1998. Then, multivariate Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMAX) was used to differentiate the impact of vegetation change and other factors from non-climatic factors. The results showed that the average annual runoff attributed to vegetation change, climate variability and other factors were -16.61mm, 8.91mm and -1.33mm, respectively, resulting in a 9.03mm reduction in annual runoff over the period of 1998-2003 comparing with the runoff without impacts. These findings are beneficial to water supply and vegetation management in semi-arid areas such as Loess Plateau of China.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Zhao R., Zhang M. and Hou Y. (2018). Impact of Vegetation Change and Climate Variability on Runoff in the Jingchuan Watershed in the Loess Plateau of China.In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Environment and Geoscience - Volume 1: IWEG, ISBN 978-989-758-342-1, pages 529-532. DOI: 10.5220/0007433005290532

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iweg18,
author={Runqi Zhao and Mingfang Zhang and Yiping Hou},
title={Impact of Vegetation Change and Climate Variability on Runoff in the Jingchuan Watershed in the Loess Plateau of China},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Workshop on Environment and Geoscience - Volume 1: IWEG,},
year={2018},
pages={529-532},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007433005290532},
isbn={978-989-758-342-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the International Workshop on Environment and Geoscience - Volume 1: IWEG,
TI - Impact of Vegetation Change and Climate Variability on Runoff in the Jingchuan Watershed in the Loess Plateau of China
SN - 978-989-758-342-1
AU - Zhao R.
AU - Zhang M.
AU - Hou Y.
PY - 2018
SP - 529
EP - 532
DO - 10.5220/0007433005290532