Hydrological Characteristics of the Rongbuk Glacier Catchment in Mt.Qomolangma Region in the Central Himalayas,China

From 8 April to 11 October in 2005, hydrological observation of the Rongbuk Glacier catchment was carried out in the Mr. Qomolangma （Everest） region in the central Himalayas, China. The results demonstrated that due to its large area with glacier lakes at the tongue of the Rongbuk Glacier, a large amount of stream flow was found at night, which indicates the strong storage characteristic of the Rongbuk Glacier catchment. There was a time lag ranging from 8 to 14 hours between daily discharge peaks and maximum melting （maximum temperature）. As melting went on the time lag got shorter. A high correlation was found between the hydrological process and daily temperature during the ablation period. The runoff from April to October was about 80% of the total in the observation period. Compared with the discharge data in 1959, the runoff in 2005 was much more, and the runoff in June, July and August increased by 69%, 35% and 14%, respectively. The rising of temperature is a major factor causing the increase in runoff. The discharges from precipitation and snow and ice melting are separated. The discharge induced by precipitation accounts for about 20% of the total runoff, while snow and ice melting for about 80%.

DISTRIBUTIONS AND HYDROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TROPICAL CYCLONE RAINSTORMS AND FLOODS IN CHINA

Regional distribution of the rainstorms and floods caused and affected by tropical cyclones are described and the geographicla divisions of China are also given in this paper. The hydrological characteristics of tropical cyclone rainstorms and floods are discussed and compared with that on non-tropical cyclones.

Coupling effects of hydrological characteristics and nutrient load in sediments on the trophic state of reservoirs

Currently,lakes and artificial reservoirs are increasingly threatened by eutrophication,which is the result of the combined action of many natural and anthropogenic factors.In the past,the effect of nutrient load on the trophic state of water bodies has attracted much attention,while few studies have addressed the effect of hydrological characteristics.Therefore,to reveal the coupling effects of hydrological characteristics and nutrient load in sediments on the trophic state of water bodies,this study collected relevant data from 36 lakes and reservoirs across China.Pearson correlation analysis showed that trophic level index was positively and significantly correlated with nutrient load in sediments and hydraulic retention time,while it was negatively correlated with mean depth and hydraulic load.The principal component analysis showed that the nutrient load was the first major component that influenced the trophic state of water bodies,followed by the mean depth and hydraulic retention time.Eutrophication was prone to occur in water bodies with mean depth less than 7 m and hydraulic retention time greater than 14 d,and the trophic level index regression equation with hydrological characteristics and nutrient load in sediments was derived by multiple regression analysis.This study revealed that the trophic state of water bodies influenced by both nutrient load and hydrological characteristics.It provides a new idea to reduce the occurrence of eutrophication in reservoirs by using the artificial hydrological regulation capacity of reservoirs.

Mapping Deciduous Broad-leaved Forested Swamps Using ALOS/Palsar Data

Accurate, updated information on the distribution of wetlands is essential for estimating net fluxes of greenhouse gases and for effectively protecting and managing wetlands. Because of their complex community structure and rich surface vegetation, deciduous broad-leaved forested swamps are considered to be one of the most difficult types of wetland to classify. In this research, with the support of remote sensing and geographic information system, multi-temporal radar images L-Palsar were used initially to extract the forest hydrological layer and phenology phase change layer as two variables through image analysis. Second, based on the environmental characteristics of forested swamps, three decision tree classifiers derived from the two variables were constructed to explore effective methods to identify deciduous broad-leaved forested swamps. Third, this study focused on analyzing the classification process between flat-forests, which are the most severely disturbed elements, and forested swamps. Finally, the application of the decision tree model will be discussed. The results showed that: 1) L-HH band(a L band with wavelength of 0–235 m in HH polarization mode; HH means Synthetic Aperture Radars transmit pulses in horizontal polarization and receive in horizontal polarization) in the leaf-off season is shown to be capable of detecting hydrologic conditions beneath the forest; 2) the accuracy of the classification(forested swamp and forest plat) was 81.5% based on hydrologic features, and 83.5% was achieved by combining hydrologic features and phenology response features, which indicated that hydrological characteristics under the forest played a key role. The HHOJ(refers to the band created by the subtraction with HH band in October and HH band in July) achieved by multi-temporal radar images did improve the classification accuracy, but not significantly, and more leaf-off radar images may be more efficient than multi-seasonal radar images for inland forested swamp mapping; 3) the lower separability between forested swamps dominated by vegetated surfaces and forest plat covered with litter was the main cause of the uncertainty in classification, which led to misleading interpretations of the pixel-based classification. Finally, through the analysis with kappa coefficients, it was shown that the value of the intersection point was an ideal choice for the variable.

An environmental flow assessment method based on the relationships between flow and ecological response: A case study of the Three Gorges Reservoir and its downstream reach

The current environmental flow assessment of Chinese rivers is thought to have three shortcomings: The first is that environmental flow requirements of reservoirs in dammed rivers are usually not explicitly considered; the second is that enough attentions have not been paid to the inherent links between flow regime and ecological processes; the third is that most studies focus on the variable range of merely one hydrological element such as discharge needed by riverine ecosystems. Here, first proposed is a holistic method for environmental flow assessment, the flow-ecological response relationship method that is suitable for large rivers with relatively abundant ecological data. Based on the conceptual models and quantitative relationships between flow and ecological response, this method comprehensively considers the ecological conservation requirements of both reservoir and its downstream reach. Then, it is applied to assessing the environmental flows of the Three Gorges Reservoir and its downstream reach by the following steps: 1) Construction of conceptual models of flow-ecological response; 2) identification of ecological targets of environmental flows and their key periods; 3) development of the quantitative relationships between hydrological indicators and ecological indictors; 4) preliminary assessment of environmental flow according to the tradeoff between ecological targets and water demands of human. The environmental flow hydrographs obtained have explicit ecological conservation targets, time schedule of achieving each target, and characteristics of multiple hydrological elements such as flow, water level, frequency, timing, duration and rate of change. The case study has tested the reasonability and feasibility of this method, and the results of this study are expected to provide technical support and decision reference for improving the operation of the Three Gorges-Gezhouba cascade reservoirs.