Impact of climate change and human activity on flow and sediment of the rivers — the Yellow River (China) example

The Yellow River, China is known for its extremely heavy sediment load, about 8 times that of the Mississippi and very small flow, only 8% of that of the Mississippi.As to the prediction of climate change at regional level precision is subject to great uncertainty, human activities will have more significant effect on changes of flow and sediment of the river over the next 20 years. Owing to the development of irrigation and industry (particulary energy industry) and possible success of soil conservation in the Loess Plateau, it is expected that the flow of the Yellow River to the sea will be reduced to about half of the present amount and the sediment load decreased 4–5 × 10⁸ tons/yr.Project Coding: SCIEL 21193111