Short project description
In recent years, the source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) has been subject to a changing climate which affects various water balance components as illustrated by the drawn-down of groundwater levels, decreased runoff and reduction of wetland and permafrost areas. The decreasing runoff from the SRYR inevitably influences water availability downstream and creates an increasing vulnerability to water scarcity problems. A thorough understanding of the physical processes responsible for the runoff reduction can provide the insights needed for efficient present-day and future water management in the Yellow River under water stress. In the proposed study, the following work will be carried out. (1) A land surface model Noah will be coupled with a hydrologic model WEP-L to provide a complete description of the water and energy land-atmosphere processes. (2) This modeling system will be validated against ground-based observations from Maqu soil moisture and temperature observation network and discharge data from Tangnaihai hydrological station, and (3) then used to identify the dominant processes responsible for runoff changes in the SRYR. (4) The water allocation and regulation module (WARM) in WEP-L will be applied together with the developed modeling system to study the water demand and water availability in the downstream part of the Yellow River. (5) Finally, future water availability due to climate change and socio-economic driving forces derived from IPCC scenarios will be analysed.
Persons involved
Donghai Zheng MSc (PhD student)
dr. ir. Martijn J. Booij (daily supervisor)
dr. ir. Rogier van der Velde (daily supervisor)
prof. dr. Z.(Bob) Su (promotor)
prof. dr. ir. Arjen Y. Hoekstra (promotor)
Publications
Zheng, D., Van der Velde, R., Su, Z., Booij, M. and Hoekstra, A., 2012. Evaluation and enhancement of the frozen soil parameterization in the Noah Land Surface Model over the source region of the Yellow River. Geophysical Research Abstracts, 14, EGU2012-13031.
Zheng, D., Van der Velde, R., Su, Z., Booij, M.J., Hoekstra, A.Y. and Wen, J., 2014. Assessment of roughness length schemes implemented within the Noah land surface model for high altitude regions. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 15, 921-937.
Zheng, D., Van der Velde, R., Su, Z., Wang, X., Wen, J., Booij, M.J., Hoekstra, A.Y. and Chen, Y., 2015. Augmentations to the Noah model physics for application to the Yellow River source area. Part I: Soil water flow. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16, 2659-2676.
Zheng, D., Van der Velde, R., Su, Z., Wang, X., Wen, J., Booij, M.J., Hoekstra, A.Y. and Chen, Y., 2015. Augmentations to the Noah model physics for application to the Yellow River source area. Part II: Turbulent heat fluxes and soil heat transport. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16, 2677-2694.
Zheng, D., Van der Velde, R., Su, Z., Wen, J., Booij, M.J., Hoekstra, A.Y. and Wang, X., 2015. Under‐canopy turbulence and root water uptake of a Tibetan meadow ecosystem modeled by Noah‐MP. Water Resources Research, 51, 5735–5755.
Zheng, D., Van der Velde, R., Su, Z., Wen, J., Wang, X., Booij, M.J., Hoekstra, A.Y., Lv, S., Zhang, Y. and Ek, M.B., 2016. Impacts of Noah model physics on catchment-scale runoff simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121, 807–832.