Analysis on the ecological benefits of the stream water conveyance to the dried-up river of the lower reaches of Tarim River,China

This paper analyzes the monitored data of the 4 times of stream water conveyances to the river section where the stream flow was cut-off, of 9 groundwater-monitoring sections and 18 vegetation plots in the lower reaches of Tarim River. The results show that the groundwater depth in the lower reaches of Tarim River rose from 9.87 m before the conveyances to 7.74 m and 3.79 m after the first and second conveyances, 3.61 and 3.16 m after the 2 phases of the third conveyance, and 2.66 m after the fourth conveyance. The transverse response scope of groundwater level was gradually enlarged along both sides of the channel of conveyances, i.e., from 450 m in width after the first conveyance to 1050 m after the fourth conveyance, but the response degree of groundwater level was reduced with the increase of the distance away from the channel of conveyances. The composition, distribution and growth status of the natural vegetation are directly related to the groundwater depth. The indexes of Simpson’s biodiversity, McIntosh’s evenness and Margalef’s richness, which reflect the change of the quantity of species and the degree of biodiversity, are reduced from 0.70, 0.48 and 0.90 to 0.26, 0.17 and 0.37 re- spectively along with the drawdown of groundwater level from the upper reaches to the lower reaches. After the stream water conveyances, the natural vegetation in the lower reaches is saved and restored along with the rise of groundwater level, the response scope of vegetation is gradually enlarged, i.e., from 200— 250 m in width after the first conveyance to 800 m after the fourth conveyance. However, there is still a great disparity to the objective of protecting the “Green Corridor”in the lower reaches of Tarim River. Thus, it is suggested to convey the stream water in double-channel way, combine the conveyance with water supply in surface scope, or construct the modern pipe-conveyance network systems so as to save the natural vegetation in an intensive way, achieve the efficient water consumption and speed up the restoration and re- generation of the damaged ecosystems in the lower reaches of Tarim River.

Prediction of water table depths under soil water-groundwater interaction and stream water conveyance

Water table over an arid region can be elevated to a critical level to sustain terrestrial ecosystem along the natural channel by the stream water conveyance. Estimation of water table depth and soil moisture on river channel profile may be reduced to a two-dimensional moving boundary problem with soil water-groundwater interaction. The two-dimensional soil water flow with stream water transferred is divided into an unsaturated vertical soil water flow and a horizontal groundwater flow. Therefore, a prediction model scheme for water table depths under the interaction between soil water and groundwater with stream water transferred is presented, which includes a vertical soil water movement model, a horizontal groundwater movement model, and an interface model. The synthetic experiments are conducted to test the sensitivities of the river elevation, horizontal conductivity, and surface flux, and the results from the experiments show the robustness of the proposed scheme under different conditions. The groundwater horizontal conductivity of the proposed scheme is also calibrated by SCE-UA method and validated by data collected at the Yingsu section in the lower reaches of the Tarim River, which shows that the model can reasonably simulate the water table depths.