Changes of Water stage in the middle Yangtze River influenced by human activities in the past 70 years

Abstract

Water stages play a critical role on flood control, water supply, navigation, and ecology in rivers. Investigation of water stages provides better understanding of riverbed evolution processes and river management. Based on the hydrological observation in past 70 years, the changes of low-flow and flood stages were investigated by a combination of Mann-Kendall test, moving t-test, and wavelet analysis. 1) In accordance with the location, the middle Yangtze River was divided into upper reach, middle reach, and lower reach. Water stages in the upper reach show a decreasing trend, while that in the middle reach present an increasing trend, and the lower reach are mainly dominated by natural evolution. 2) The mutation year of water stages in the upper reach was around 1985, indicating that the Gezhouba Dam facilitated the reduction of water stages. The trend mutation in the middle reach was in 1969, which was consistent with the implementation of Jingjiang Cutoff. 3) Human activities aggravated the change of water stages, leading the primary period of water stage time series to exceed 20 years. 4) In the upper reach, the reductions of water stages were attributed to the riverbed erosion induced by human activities. While in the middle reach, the recent falling effects of riverbed erosion can hardly offset the rising effects of the channel resistance on water stages. 5) In the future, the increasing trend in the middle reach may be arrested due to the riverbed erosion induced by the Three Gorges Dam. Long-term observation of the flood stage must be conducted in the middle Yangtze River.

Keywords

flood stage / low-flow stage / human activity / Yangtze River

References

[1] Chen H, Guo Sh, Xu C Y, Singh V P (2007). Historical temporal trends of hydro-climatic variables and runoff response to climate variability and their relevance in water resource management in the Hanjiang Basin. Journal of Hydrology, 344(3–4): 171–184

[2] Chen Z, Jiang C (2012). Effect of floodplain vegetation on river hydrodynamics. Journal of Tsinghua University, 52(6): 804–808

[3] Chen Z, Wang Z, Finlayson B, Chen J, Yin D (2010). Implications of flow control by the Three Gorges Dam on sediment and channel dynamics of the middle Yangtze (Changjiang) River, China. Geology, 38(11): 1043–1046

[4] Cheng J, Xu L, Fan H, Jiang J (2019). Changes in the flow regimes associated with climate change and human activities in the Yangtze River. River Res Appl, 35(9): 1415–1427

[5] Criss R E, Luo M (2017). Increasing risk and uncertainty of flooding in the Mississippi River basin. Hydrol Processes, 31(6): 1283–1292

[6] Deng S, Xia J, Zhou M, Lin F (2019). Coupled modeling of bed deformation and bank erosion in the Jingjiang Reach of the middle Yangtze River. J Hydrol (Amst), 568: 221–233

[7] Doucoure B, Agbossou K, Cardenas A (2016). Time series prediction using artificial wavelet neural network and multi-resolution analysis: Application to wind speed data. Renew Energy, 92: 202–211

[8] Fan Y R, Huang W W, Huang G H, Li Y P, Huang K, Li Z (2016). Hydrologic risk analysis in the Yangtze River basin through coupling Gaussian mixtures into copulas. Adv Water Resour, 88: 170–185

[9] Fang H, Han D, He G, Chen M (2012). Flood management selections for the Yangtze River midstream after the Three Gorges Project operation. J Hydrol (Amst), 432–433: 1–11

[10] Habersack H, Hein T, Stanica A, Liska I, Mair R, Jäger E, Hauer C, Bradley C (2016). Challenges of river basin management: current status of, and prospects for, the River Danube from a river engineering perspective. Sci Total Environ, 543(Pt A): 828–845

[11] Han J, Sun Z, Li Y (2018). Distribution of erosion intensity in the Jingjiang reach influenced by the Three Gorges Dam. Earth Surf Process Landf, 43(12): 2654–2665

[12] Han J, Sun Z, Li Y, Yang Y (2017). Combined effects of multiple large-scale hydraulic engineering on water stages in the middle Yangtze River. Geomorphology, 298: 31–40

[13] Huang Y, Wang J, Yang M (2019). Unexpected sedimentation patterns upstream and downstream of the Three Gorges Reservoir: future risks. Int J Sediment Res, 34(2): 108–117

[14] Labat D (2008). Wavelet analysis of the annual discharge records of the world’s largest rivers. Adv Water Resour, 31(1): 109–117

[15] Lai X, Jiang J, Yang G, Lu X X (2014). Should the Three Gorges Dam be blamed for the extremely low water levels in the middle-lower Yangtze River? Hydrol Processes, 28(1): 150–160

[16] Leopold L B, Maddock T M Jr (1953). The hydraulic geometry of stream channels and some physiographic implications. In: USGS Professional Paper 252. Prog Phys Geogr, 20(1): 81–87

[17] Li D, Lu X X, Yang X, Chen L, Lin L (2018). Sediment load responses to climate variation and cascade reservoirs in the Yangtze River: a case study of the Jinsha River. Geomorphology, 322: 41–52

[18] Li Q, Yu M, Lu G, Cai T, Bai X, Xia Z (2011). Impacts of the Gezhouba and Three Gorges reservoirs on the sediment regime in the Yangtze River, China. J Hydrol (Amst), 403(3–4): 224–233

[19] Markovich K H, Maxwell R M, Fogg G E (2016). Hydrogeological response to climate change in alpine hillslopes. Hydrol Processes, 30(18): 3126–3138

[20] Mei X, Dai Z, Darby S E, Gao S, Wang J, Jiang W (2018). Modulation of extreme flood levels by impoundment significantly offset by floodplain loss downstream of the Three Gorges Dam. Geophys Res Lett, 45(7): 3147–3155

[21] Mora-López L, Mora J (2015). An adaptive algorithm for clustering cumulative probability distribution functions using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov two-sample test. Expert Syst Appl, 42(8): 4016–4021

[22] Pacheco F A L, Fallico C (2015). Hydraulic head response of a confined aquifer influenced by river stage fluctuations and mechanical loading. J Hydrol (Amst), 531: 716–727

[23] Peña-Arancibia J L, van Dijk A I J M, Guerschman J P, Mulligan M, Bruijnzeel L A, McVicar T R. (2012). Detecting changes in streamflow after partial woodland clearing in two large catchments in the seasonal tropics. J Hydrol (Amst), 416–417: 60–71

[24] Qu G, Xu H, Guo X H,Zhu Y H (2012). The change and effect factors of water level in Jingjiang River. Procedia Engineering, 28: 165–170

[25] Sang Y F, Wang Z, Liu C (2014). Comparison of the MK test and EMD method for trend identification in hydrological time series. J Hydrol (Amst), 510: 293–298

[26] Shan Y, Liu X, Yang K, Liu C (2017). Analytical model for stage-discharge estimation in meandering compound channels with submerged flexible vegetation. Adv Water Resour, 108(Oct): 170–183

[27] Tealdi S, Camporeale C, Ridolfi L (2011). Long-term morphological river response to hydrological changes. Adv Water Resour, 34(12): 1643–1655

[28] Wang J, Sheng Y, Gleason C J, Wada Y (2013). Downstream Yangtze River levels impacted by Three Gorges Dam. Environ Res Lett, 8(4): 044012

[29] Wang J, Sheng Y, Tong T S D (2014). Monitoring decadal lake dynamics across the Yangtze Basin downstream of Three Gorges Dam. Remote Sens Environ, 152: 251–269

[30] Wang J, Sheng Y, Wada Y (2017). Little impact of Three Gorges Dam on recent decadal lake decline across China’s Yangtze Plain. Water Resour Res, 53(5): 3854–3877

[31] Westerberg I, Guerrero J L, Seibert J, Beven K J, Halldin S (2011). Stage-discharge uncertainty derived with a non-stationary rating curve in the Choluteca River, Honduras. Hydrol Processes, 25(4): 603–613

[32] Xia J, Deng S, Lu J, Xu Q, Zong Q, Tan G (2016). Dynamic channel adjustments in the Jingjiang Reach of the Middle Yangtze River. Sci Rep, 6(1): 22802

[33] Yang Y, Zhang M, Zhu L, Liu W, Han J, Yang Y (2017). Influence of Large Reservoir Operation on Water-Levels and Flows in Reaches below Dam: case Study of the Three Gorges Reservoir. Sci Rep, 7(1): 15640

[34] Ye X, Zhang Q, Liu J, Li X, Xu C (2013). Distinguishing the relative impacts of climate change and human activities on variation of streamflow in the Poyang Lake catchment, China. J Hydrol (Amst), 494: 83–95

[35] Yuan W, Yin D, Brian F, Chen Z (2012). Assessing the potential for change in the middle Yangtze River channel following impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam. Geomorphology, 147–148: 27

[36] Zhang M, Singh H V, Migliaccio K W, Kisekka I (2017). Evaluating water table response to rainfall events in a shallow aquifer and canal system. Hydrol Processes, 31(22): 3907–3919

[37] Zhang Q, Singh V P, Xu C Y, Chen X (2013). Abrupt behaviours of streamflow and sediment load variations of the Yangtze River basin, China. Hydrol Processes, 27(3): 444–452

[38] Zhang S, Jing Z, Li W, Yi Y, Zhao Y (2018). Study of the flood control scheduling scheme for the Three Gorges Reservoir in a catastrophic flood. Hydrol Processes, 32(11): 1625–1634

[39] Zhou M, Xia J, Lu J, Deng S, Lin F (2017). Morphological adjustments in a meandering reach of the middle Yangtze River caused by severe human activities. Geomorphology, 285: 325–332

[40] Zhu F, Zhong P A, Sun Y, Yeh W W G (2017). Real-time optimal flood control decision making and risk propagation under multiple uncertainties. Water Resour Res, 53(12): 10635–10654

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Open Research Fund Program of State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science (No. 2018HLG03); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41807067, 41771558); the Water and Soil Conservancy Science Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (No. 2017sbkj-01); and the Youth Talent Lift Project of China Association for Science and Technology (No. 2019-2021QNRC-001).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2021 Higher Education Press