Surface water resource attenuation attribution and patterns in Hai River Basin

From 1956 to 2016,Hai River Basin suffered the most severe surface water resource attenuation among the 10 first-class river basins in China.Based on the surface water circulation process,and evolving characteristics of precipitation and underlying surface in Hai River Basin,this study attributed the causes of surface water resource attenuation to six primary impact factors,analyzed each factor's quantitative contribution,and revealed four patterns of surface water resource attenuation in Hai River Basin.The pattern of the dominant factor:comparing the 1980–2000 period with the 1956–1979period,the variation of precipitation is the dominant factor of which contribution is 7 billion m^(3),accounting for 59%of total11.7 billion m^(3);comparing the 2001–2016 period with the 1956–1979 period,the increasing of vegetation cover in mountainous area is the dominant factor of which contribution is 2.78 billion m3,accounting for 51%of total 4.9 billion m^(3).The pattern of spatial distributions:comparing the 2001–2016 period with the 1956–1979 period,mountainous areas were more affected by increasing vegetation cover which for example contributed 42%in Luan River Basin mountainous;the plains were more impacted by farmland ridge interception which for example contributed 51%in Beisi River Basin plains.The pattern of attenuation trend:comparing the 2001–2016 period with the 1980–2000 period,surface water resources in mountainous areas continued to decline,owing to the increasing water consumption of large-scale vegetation restoration,while the influence of the underlying surface changes on surface water resources in plains areas tended to remain stable.The pattern of reversible change:among factors led to surface water resource attenuation,the human activity,including vegetation cover increase,farmland ridge interception,and urbanization expansion,contributed 36%of the attenuation,which resulted in the variation of precipitation-runoff relation.This study improved the traditional attribution classification model of climate change and human activity and analyzed the causes and contributions of water resource attenuation in Hai River Basin based on the water circulation process,which can provide scientific support for the development of water resource management in the basin.

Rapid intelligent evaluation method and technology for determining engineering rock mass quality

The evaluation of engineering rock mass quality is fundamental work for the engineering activities of rock mass.The increasing scale of rock mass engineering necessitates higher intelligence,timeliness,and accuracy in engineering rock mass quality evaluation.As the core aspects of engineering rock mass quality evaluation,the structural characteristics,mechanical characteristics,and quality classification of rock mass have been innovated in recent years.The non-contact measurement technology for rock mass structure and rapid interpretation of rock mass structure information enables the intelligent extraction and analysis of rock mass structure parameters.The modular backpack laboratory system of rock mechanics provides an effective means to acquire rock mechanical parameters on-site conveniently.The theory of statistical mechanics of rock mass(SMRM)integrates various factors such as the rock mass properties,geological environment,and engineering disturbance,providing a theoretical basis for accurately evaluating the weakening and anisotropy of rock mass.The cloud computing platform established based on SMRM can provide technical support for the rapid calculation of rock mass parameters and instant evaluation of the rock mass quality.The development of intelligent evaluation method and technology is altering the conventional technical state of qualitative and semi-quantitative evaluation of engineering rock mass quality,supporting the realization of rock mass engineering construction with intellectualization and informatization.

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.

The changes of renewable water resources in China during 1956 –2010

Water is a critical natural resource upon which all social and economic activities and ecosystem functions depend. With a surprising social and economic development in the past decades, water has become an important constraint for China's sustainable development, and a matter concerning economic security, ecological security and national security of the country. Understanding the changes of water resources is greatly helpful in analyzing the impacts of climatic change, formulating plans for utilization and protection of water resources, and making water resource decisions. Based on China's national water resources assessment, the Mann-Kendall's test, and Morlet wavelet, we analyzed the changing trends and periods of China's renewable water resources during 1956–2010. The results as following:(1) There is no significant change trend of water resources on the countrywide scale during the period 1956–2010, the total water resources show a slight increasing trend, and the national annual average water resources during the period 1991–2010 increased by 1% relative to that of the period 1961–1990.(2) The changes of water resources in different level-I water resource regions vary significantly. Annual average water resources of the Haihe River and Yellow River regions in the northern China decreased 19% and 17% respectively in the past 20 years. Water resource increased in Southern and Northwestern rivers regions, particularly in the Northwest rivers region, with the increasing amplitude by nearly 10% in the past 20 years.(3) The inter-annual variation of national water resource became larger in the past 20 years, as compared with that of the period 1961–1990. The coefficients of water resource variation increased in Northwestern and Southwestern rivers regions, while the inter-annual variation tended to decrease in the Haihe and the Yellow River regions where significant decline of water resources happened.(4) A 14-year quasi-periodicity of the national water resource variation was detected, overlapping with various periodicities of water resources of different level-I water resource regions. Remarkable uniformity exists between the first or secondary primary periodicity of water resource variation in adjacent level-I water resource regions.

一种河湖水系连通方案的综合评估方法——以汤逊湖湖泊群为例（英文）

The Interconnected River System Network (IRSN) plays a crucial role in water resource allocation, water ecological restoration and water quality improvement. It has become a key part of the urban lake management. An evaluation methodology system for IRSN project can provide important guidance for the selection of different water diversion schemes. However, few if any comprehensive evaluation systems have been developed to evaluate the hydrodynamics and water quality of connected lakes. This study developed a comprehensive evaluation system based on multi-indexes including aspects of water hydrodynamics, water quality and socioeconomics. A two-dimensional (2-D) mathematical hydrodynamics and water quality model was built, using NH_3-N, TN and TP as water quality index. The IRSN project in Tangxun Lake group was used as a testbed here, and five water diversion schemes were simulated and evaluated. Results showed that the IRSN project can improve the water fluidity and the water quality obviously after a short time of water diversion, while the improvement rates decreased gradually as the water diversion went on. Among these five schemes, Scheme V showed the most noticeable improvement in hydrodynamics and water quality, and brought the most economic benefits. This comprehensive evaluation method can provide useful reference for the implementation of other similar IRSN projects.

Contrasting phenology responses to climate warming across the northern extra-tropics

Climate warming has substantially advanced the timing of spring leaf-out of woody species at middle and high latitudes,albeit with large differences.Insights in the spatial variation of this climate warming response may therefore help to constrain future trends in leaf-out and its impact on energy,water and carbon balances at global scales.In this study,we used in situ phenology observations of 38 species from 2067 study sites,distributed across the northern hemisphere in China,Europe and the United States,to investigate the latitudinal patterns of spring leaf-out and its sensitivity(S T,advance of leaf-out dates per degree of warming)and correlation(R_(T),partial correlation coefficient)to temperature during the period 1980-2016.Across all species and sites,we found that S_(T) decreased significantly by 0.15±0.02 d℃^(-1)°N^(-1),and R_(T) increased by 0.02±0.001°N^(-1)(both at P<0.001).The latitudinal patterns in R_(T) and S_(T) were explained by the differences in requirements of chilling and thermal forcing that evolved to maximize tree fitness under local climate,particularly climate predictability and summed precipitation during the pre-leaf-out season.Our results thus showed complicated spatial differences in leaf-out responses to ongoing climate warming and indicated that spatial differences in the interactions among environmental cues need to be embedded into large-scale phenology models to improve the simulation accuracy.