INFLUENCE OF THE UPSTREAM RESERVOIRS ON THE ADJUSTMENT OF DOWNSTREAM ALLUVIAL CHANNEL

I. INTRODUCTIONThe Yellow River is a heavily sediment--laden river. The sediment load of the Yellow River ranks the first in the world while its annual runoff is only of medium size. Toharness the river, it is necessary to build reservoirs for regulating runoff to meet the demands of economic development. Since the founding of PRC in 1949, I S4 large and medium--sized reservoirs have been constructed on the main stem and the tributaries with atotal storage capacity of 84.5 billion m3.…     

Horton's slope function

An error is pointed out in Robert Horton's (1945) presentation of his ‘slope function’. The history of its apparent non-detection provides an interesting perspective on the development of geomorphology as a science.     

Infiltration,runoff and sediment production in blanket peat catchments: implications of field rainfall simulation experiments

Blanket peat covers the headwaters of many major European rivers. Runoff production in upland blanket peat catchments is flashy with large flood peaks and short lag times; there is minimal baseflow. Little is known about the exact processes of infiltration and runoff generation within these upland headwaters. This paper presents results from a set of rainfall simulation experiments performed on the blanket peat moorland of the North Pennines, UK. Rainfall was simulated at low intensities (3–12 mm h^?1), typical of natural rainfall, on bare and vegetated peat surfaces. Runoff response shows that infiltration rate increases with rainfall intensity; the use of low‐intensity rainfall therefore allows a more realistic evaluation of infiltration rates and flow processes than previous studies. Overland flow is shown to be common on both vegetated and bare peat surfaces although surface cover does exert some control. Most runoff is produced within the top few centimetres of the peat and runoff response decreases rapidly with depth. Little vertical percolation takes place to depths greater than 10 cm owing to the saturation of the peat mass. This study provides evidence that the quickflow response of upland blanket peat catchments is a result of saturation‐excess overland flow generation. Rainfall–runoff response from small plots varies with season. Following warm, dry weather, rainfall tends to infiltrate more readily into blanket peat, not just initially but to the extent that steady‐state surface runoff rates are reduced and more flow takes place within the peat, albeit at shallow depth. Sediment erosion from bare peat plots tends to be supply limited. Seasonal weather conditions may affect this in that after a warm, dry spell, surface desiccation allows sediment erosion to become transport limited. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scaling and regionalization of flood flows in British Columbia,Canada

A regionalization of flood data in British Columbia reveals a common scaling with drainage area over the range 0·5×10²<A_d<10⁴ km². This scaling is not a function of flood return period, which implies that simple scaling—consistent with a snowmelt‐dominated flow regime—applies to the province. The observed scale relation takes the form , similar to values reported in previous studies. The scaling relation identified was used to define the regional pattern of hydroclimatic variability for flood flows in British Columbia after discounting the effect of drainage area. The pattern was determined by kriging a scale‐independent runoff factor k for the mean annual flood, 5 year flood and 20 year flood. The analysis permits quantification of uncertainty of the estimates, which can be used in conjunction with the mapped k‐fields to calculate a mean and range for floods with the identified return period for ungauged basins. Owing to the sparsity of data, the precision is relatively poor. The standard error is generally less than 75% of the estimate in the southern half of the province, whereas in the northern half it is often between 75 and 100%. Examination of the relative increase in flood magnitude with increasing return period reveals spatially consistent but statistically insignificant differences. Flood magnitude tends to increase more rapidly in the western regions, where rain events may contribute to flood generation. The relative increase in flood magnitude with return period is consistently lower in the eastern mountain ranges, where snowmelt dominates the flood flow regime. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Erosion and runoff reduction potential of vetiver grass for hill slopes: A physical model study

Severe erosion is caused by intense rainfall in tropical regions. The erodible soil of steep hill slopes, accompanied by destruction of vegetation due to human interventions results in accelerated erosion. A sustainable and cost-effective solution such as vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) is, thus, required to control the erosion process. In the current study, 6 small-scale glass models: 1 bare and 5 with vetiver grass, having a slope angle of 37° have been constructed. One year after planting, artificial rainfall of extremely high intensity was applied to all 6 small models and the role of vetiver canopy and roots in erosion and runoff control was observed. To see the effect of soil texture, one among these 5 models was made with silty sand and others contained sandy silt. The results demonstrated that, for sandy silt, the inclusion of vetiver reduced the soil loss by 94%–97%, and soil detachment rates were lowered by 95%. The average runoff also was reduced by 21%. The canopy cover showed a positive impact on reducing both quantities. An increase in average root diameter from 1.6 to 2.5 mm increases the soil loss due to its negative impact on added cohesion. The added cohesion showed a linearly negative correlation with soil loss. A composite system of vetiver and jute geotextile was most effective in erosion reduction among 4 vegetated models with sandy silt. Under same vetiver planting layout, the grass covered model of silty sand yielded 84% lower erosion and 62.5% lower runoff than the grass covered one with sandy silt. Thus, vetiver was more effective in erosion and runoff reduction for soil with a greater percentage of sand, and soil type dominated the erosion process.     

城市化背景下年最大日径流演变及影响因素研究——以长江下游秦淮河流域为例

随着气候变化和人类活动的加剧,城市化地区水文过程受到较大影响,极端水文事件发生频率显著加大,探究城市化地区洪水演变和驱动机理对于防洪减灾具有重大意义。本文以长江下游快速城市化地区的秦淮河流域为例,分析了1987—2018年期间该流域年最大日径流的演变特征,构建多元线性回归模型和广义可加GAMLSS模型识别了关键驱动因子并量化其贡献作用。结果表明:(1)城市化背景下秦淮河流域年最大日径流呈现显著上升趋势,平均增长速率为14.77 m³/(s·a),并于2001年发生显著突变。(2)汛期降水量和不透水面率是年最大日径流变化的关键驱动因素,最优模型显示前者贡献率超过了70%,表明了降水改变的决定性作用,而不透水面率贡献率超过20%则表明了下垫面的改变对年最大日径流演变存在显著影响。(3)不透水面的增加对年最大日径流和汛期降水量响应关系的影响程度从突变前的6.7%增加到突变后的10.4%,快速城市化已显著改变了流域降水-径流响应过程。研究表明,随着城市发展秦淮河流域的年最大日径流受到人类活动显著影响,洪涝威胁日趋增大,研究结果可为城市化地区防洪减灾提供一定参考。     

极端降雨事件对南方红壤区径流和输沙的影响——基于赣江支流濂江上游流域的长序列分析(1984—2020年)

为探究极端降雨对南方红壤区流域水沙的影响,本文基于江西省鄱阳湖水系赣江上游濂江流域1984—2020年逐日降雨量、径流量和输沙量数据,使用95百分位法计算极端降雨,并采用最小事件间隔时间法分割降雨事件,综合应用Pettitt检验和线性回归方法对水沙突变、影响因子进行定量分析。结果表明:(1)发生极端降雨事件的时期是流域泥沙输出的关键时期,极端降雨对输沙量的贡献率达85.58%～87.79%,而对径流量的贡献为38.33%～43.42%。(2)在极端降雨情景下,年径流量从1984—1995年的209.21×10⁶ m³下降到1996—2020年的165.23×10⁶ m³,而年输沙量从1984—1995年的3.65×10⁴ t增加到1996—2020年的12.8×10⁴ t,相比于1984—1995年,1996—2020年的极端降雨所产生的径流量和输沙量占比有缩小趋势,分别表现为从43.42%到38.33%和从87.79%到85.58%。(3)极端降雨情景下...     

Observed advantage for negative binomial over Poisson distribution in partial duration series

The goodness of fit of the negative binomial and the Poisson distributions to partial duration series of runoff events is tested. The data have been recorded by eight hydrometric stations located on ephemeral rivers in Isreal. For each station, a number of threshold discharges are considered, by that series of nested subsamples are formed. Owing to size limitations, a Chi-square test is conducted on samples associated with low to moderate threshold discharges. Positive results, at a 5% significance level, are obtained in 30 out of the 53 tests of the Poisson distribution, and in 22 out of the 28 tests of the negative binomial distribution. The fit of the Poisson distribution to samples of conventionally recommended sizes (of 2 to 3 events per year) is found positive for five rivers and negative for the three other rivers The fit of the negative binomial distribution to these samples is found positive for six rivers, inconclusive for one river and short of data for the eighth river. Mixed results are obtained as the threshold level is raised. Therefore, no direct extrapolation is possible to samples associated with high thresholds.An indirect extrapolation is drawn through a comparison of the actual properties of the samples with those expected under a perfect fit of the distribution functions. Ranges of such properties are defined with respect to the properties of the tested samples and to the test results. The actual properties of nine of the eleven samples associated with high thresholds (i.e. mean number of events <-0.1year ^–1) are found within these ranges. This provides a hint for a probable good fit of either distribution, and particularly the negative binomial, to the occurrence frequency of high events.     

Influence of forest fires on climate change studies in the central boreal forest of Canada

This brief paper indicates that forest fires may have short and longer term effects on runoff and thus, can influence trend studies on the response of watersheds to climate change. Twenty-two watersheds at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario were studied to view the impacts of climatic variability and forest fires on runoff. A roughly 30 year database demonstrated few trends in climatological variables and even fewer trends in runoff data at the 5% significance level. Daily maximum temperature increased by 0.053 °C per year, while precipitation in the months of February and March showed significant decreases. Total snow showed a significant decrease over a 30 year period at the 8% significance level. The Mann Kendall test for trend was applied to the runoff indices of 19 watersheds and it was revealed that only six exhibited trends. Of these, five had been burned during the test period. Virtually all burned watersheds showed initial increases in runoff, however, long term runoff trended lower in the burned watersheds, while the one watershed that was not burned showed an increasing trend. Forest fires alter the age distribution of trees with subsequent impacts on water yields in the short and longer term.