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Mitigating Climate Change Impacts for Optimizing Water Productivity

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River Basin Management

Part of the book series: Ecohydrology ((ECOH))

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Abstract

In ecologically fragile areas with arid climate, such as the Heihe River Basin in Northwestern China, sustainable social and economic development depends largely on the availability and sustainable uses of water resource. However, under the influence of the rapidly changing climate and human activities, the Heihe River Basin undergoes serious water shortage and water productivity decline. In this chapter we adopted a semi-distributed conceptual hydrological model (SWAT – Soil Water Assessment Tool) coupled with a glacier melting algorithm to investigate the sensitivity of streamflow to climatic and glacial changes in the upstream of the Heihe River Basin. The glacier mass balance was calculated at daily time-step using a distributed temperature-index melting and accumulation algorithm embedded in the SWAT model. Specifically, the model was calibrated and validated using daily streamflow data measured at Yingluoxia Hydrological Station and decadal ice volume changes derived from survey maps and remote sensing images between 1960 and 2010. This study highlights the effects of glacier melting on streamflow and their future changes in the mountainous watersheds. Further, we used improved CGE model to analyze the difference and change between different industries in middle stream of the Heihe River Basin. Simulation results indicate that industrial transformation and development of water-saving industries will also improve water productivity. Lastly, we put forward some strategies on how to mitigate climate change impacts for optimizing water productivity from three perspectives: (1) scientific research needed by scientists, (2) management and institution formulation needed by governments, and (3) water resource optimal allocation by the manager at all administrative levels.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Zhongxiao Sun

  2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Feng Wu, Aisha Arowolo & Xiangzheng Deng

  3. Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Feng Wu, Aisha Arowolo & Xiangzheng Deng

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Aisha Arowolo

  5. Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

    Chunhong Zhao

Authors
  1. Zhongxiao Sun
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  2. Feng Wu
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  3. Aisha Arowolo
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  4. Chunhong Zhao
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  5. Xiangzheng Deng
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Beijing, China

    Xiangzheng Deng

  2. Department of Economics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand

    John Gibson

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Sun, Z., Wu, F., Arowolo, A., Zhao, C., Deng, X. (2018). Mitigating Climate Change Impacts for Optimizing Water Productivity. In: Deng, X., Gibson, J. (eds) River Basin Management. Ecohydrology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0841-2_5-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0841-2_5-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0841-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0841-2

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